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@brianjarvis
When my brother had five sessions of SBRT to treat his cancer, he did have urinary issues. Flomax resolved them and they only went on for a month or two.
Just got a call from a friend of his yesterday who is Having 20 sessions of IMRT. He said after the third session, he felt a lot of burning when he was peeing, and it was driving him nuts. He tried AZO and it did not help. I think cystitis is a common problem for people that have around 20 sessions of IMRT. We’ve heard many people in this forum, complain about cystitis issues. I know from personal experience that having close to 40 sessions, with the lower radiation, doesn’t seem to cause a big problem with Cystitis, in comparison.
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@jeffmarc So many “if’s” with radiation treatments:
> proper full bladder/empty bowel routine (so that organs are in the same place every time).
> use of rectal spacers: trials also demonstrated improved GU, GI, and sexual benefits.
> Radiation can cause damage to anything it hits/lingers on. So very important for the duration of the radiation to be correct - not just the number of sessions and dose.
Like with your friend with the 20 sessions of IMRT, all these issues (and more) need to be discussed. (I had 28 sessions of proton radiation; only had 1 day of issues during treatments, and that was an inflammatory reaction to the radiation. Tamsulosin resolved that.)
There is the possibility of radiation-induced proctitis, cystitis, and enteritis. All these need to be discussed prior to treatments along with ways to minimize/avoid them.
I’ve attached a chart of all the possible side-effects my RO and I covered; we discussed ways to minimize/avoid each.