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What side effects have you experienced from SBRT for prostate cancer?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Dec 5 7:02pm | Replies (62)Comment receiving replies
@frw
I had SBRT (5 treatments) with 6 months of ADT at a "center of excellence" in the northeast. Unfortunately, I had several side effects- urinary retention (resulted in an ER visit and three weeks with a foley, followed by self-catheterization), rectal bleeding etc. I'm four years post treatment and still having problems.
Has anyone mentioned brachytherapy? It can deliver a higher dose and not impact surrounding tissues.
Replies to "@frw I had SBRT (5 treatments) with 6 months of ADT at a "center of excellence"..."
@jd18
I just finished SBRT (Varian Ethos adaptive CT) a little over a week ago. The SEs came slowly, frequent urination, diarrhea, some body aches from a slight fever that occasionally rose to 100, and tiredness. I also lost my appetite. I'm late into my second month of Orgovyx. Today the SEs seem to be abating a little and I'm hoping that except for the ADT, the SEs will be done within a couple of weeks. All of this was manageable but unpleasant.
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@jd18
There has been a good amount of discussion about brachytherapy. You could go to the top level of the prostate cancer, forum, and search for it to get people’s comments. It works quite well as a secondary treatment after IMRT. In Europe is used heavily for the main treatment.
It is suspected that the reason it is not using much here is because financially it is not as lucrative as doing many IMRT sessions or 5 SBRT sessions. There are still a number of doctors that do it in the US.
You definitely have more Side effects and more lasting side effects than The majority of people that get SBRT. My brother had it at 77 and he had urinary issues for a while, but Flomax resolved them. Starting about a year after his treatment, all of his issues went away.
This was posted by somebody else a few days ago. Goes into the most common radiation side effects.