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DiscussionExpected side effects of adjuvant radiotherapy after prostatectomy?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (28)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "You should be fine as long as sufficient time elapses for surgical healing to take place..."
Yes, but you needed salvage dear Phil 😌, Soli was asking about adjuvant.
Adjuvant is done when your PSA is undetectable and that is a tough call indeed. We have a member here who consulted, I forgot was it 4 or 5 top notch institutions, about doing adjuvant and all but one told him not to do it. Even top doctors are not sure IF and WHEN is it wise to do it, so it is kind of being a "pioneer" in the unknown land of PC, unfortunately. That member did need salavage at the end, but those months gave him time to heal.
As for any medical study, one can find some that show benefit and some that don't.
As we can see as of lately, all of the sudden there is a trend to do shorter courses of ADT, or even none in some cases; now we also have "ADT holidays", what is next - nobody needed to be on ADT for 2 years ??? All of the sudden everybody will be on estrogen instead ? 😳 Well, it is wonderful that new and new things are invented and discovered, thanks heavens for that, but at some point one starts to wonder and one starts to rethink the whole approach 🤷♀️.
Would you jump into adjuvant at 74 ? Lets say, your PSA is 0.015 and you are just 8 weeks post op, still recovering. You might or might not have BCR in the next 5 years., and results are better in 25% cases OF 8 % cases of total number ??? And that is in ONE study, the other shows no advantage ?
It is a very tough call. One can do it and be possibly done with "maybe" needed clean-up for many years ahead or one can wait either a year or up to 5 or even more and than do salvage ? It is maddening even if there were zero side effects 😣, and there are never 0. Some are acute and some come later , not all are extremely bad, but ... We can go in circle till the *ell freezes over ... 😵💫 It is TOUGH choice.
@heavyphil
Thank you for your advice. I do have baseline overactive bladder issues, so one concern I have - among many - is raditation may exacerbate this parttcular problem. But like you said, getting treatment at a top notch RO team is the best way to reduce the risk of serious and lingering sideffects that destroy my quality of life.