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Brachytherapy? Anyone have thoughts?
Hi all. I have been on active surveillance for two years but psa is up to 6.49 so we did a second biopsy. Gleason 7 (3+4, 3+4, 3+3, 3+3). Just recieved Decipher score .29. I’m 65, still working and physically active. I know 2 men who did the low dose Brachytherapy with good success, but I don’t know what their numbers were. Any anecdotal experience with, or info about, that treatment path would be appreciated.
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That's fantastic! For context, what were the detailed results of your biopsy and, if you had it done, your Decipher score?
Thank you for participating on MCC, your participation makes a difference!
Bill
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1 ReactionI had LDR Brachytherapy in Dec 2019. Gleason score was 4+3. All 12 cores cancerous with 4 aggressive cancer. PSA of 10.7. After LDR B, my PSA never went below 1, then over the next 2 years it was back up to 9.7. PET Scan showed cancer had spread to my right pelvic lymph nodes. Did SBRT Radiation and 8 months of Lupron Depot. Since then my PSA has been undetectable at 0.13. I'm getting my PSA checked this week so we'll see what happens next. Fingers crossed.
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3 ReactionsInterstitial radio therapy ['seeds'/ LDR], may cost as little as 5K, HDR ?$, SBRT (5 visits ) maybe 25K, IMRT may be 35K.Is it any wonder that it is difficult to find an (RO) relatively low tech solution for many,...maybe most in the early diagnosis PSMA PET CT scan negative for ECE. Dr Kishan at UCLA is using SBRT for even HIGH Risk 'early birds' As CMS (taxpayers) pays for the graduate training of radiation oncologists maybe a little leverage can be exerted to require competency in cheaper solutions? Just saying.
The good thing for me is I’m in Canada so everything was paid for under our Government health insurance. I feel sorry for the people in the US who are in my position and need thousands of dollars worth of Cancer care and don’t have insurance or are losing their insurance.
Just got my PSA result - 0.19. Looks like the SBRT and Lupron did the job.
I have a 95 year old uncle who has had the seeds for probably 40 years. He is living independently (tells me he and my aunt are bumping into each other with their walkers)
sure worked for him
@dirtdancer I'm finding that whatever their personal specialty is, is almost always the best treatment.
My RO recommends Brachy HDR. Any experience out there with this form of therapy?
@ksellers3 same for me, consult coming up. There is a lot of good stuff on YouTube.
With the understanding that nothing is for certain and no treatment protocol is 100% guaranteed....I had one core 4+3 with PSA 7.1 and chose three pronged IMRT + one HDR brachytherapy "boost" and 6 months Orgovyx ADT. I am now 4 months post treatment expecting my second post treatment PSA in January. Prayer my PSA remains low.
I found the outpatient high dose brachytherapy procedure to be far less scary than I expected. I trusted my multi-disciplinary team at a university Center of Excellence and believe this three pronged approach gave me my best chance at a cure.
In summary, I did not want 70 radioactive seeds left in my body nor did the RO recommend low dose LDR. The one time high dose HDR was quite tolerable for me and hopefully did the "boost" trick on top of the other two therapies
Good luck with your decision and prayers for a cure for you as others on this forum
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