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Not Good News after prostate biospy when MRI didn't look too bad
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 2 hours ago | Replies (165)Comment receiving replies
You need a second or third opinion from top 5 or 10 center of excellence. I struggled with quality of life post surgery and how many35 or 40 day treatments to sign up for . These are hard choices. My surgery was incomplete. Positive margins etc. . It does seem that the radiation side effects are less when the people posting here go to mriguided proton therapy. The sales pitches I get claim photon is just as good but I personally know a dozen or more whose lives are pure hell with intestinal burns and permanent bowel issues . My hopes currently center on detecting a treatable hot spot and zapping it with 2 or 5 fraction proton therapy. Do a lot of research. People on here have experiences and connections that are invaluable. Be well and God bless you.
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@billfarm It's a trade-off: more-precise radiation means fewer side-effects; less-precise radiation means a better chance of catching any cancer cells that might have already spread locally (but haven't yet formed tumors big enough to detect with imaging).
I have radiation cystitis and proctitis long-term from photon RT in 2022. I definitely wouldn't describe it as "hell," just a mild discomfort (except for a bout of hematuria and urinary incontinence in summer 2023, which I overcame).
On the bright side, those side-effects are reminders that the radiation spread around my prostate and didn't just stay in it, which meant that if there were any stray cancer cells hanging around in the prostate bed, the bottom of the bladder, or my rectum, they got zapped by the radiation as well, and hopefully there won't be anything developing there in the future. 🤷