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Considering Tulsa Pro or Proton radiation (full gland)
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: May 19 4:15pm | Replies (101)Comment receiving replies
@clevelandguy Proton rad can definitely hit the bladder. I know because it hit my bladder. 5 proton sbrt. It can be minimized, but not totally eliminated. The gel rectal spacer helped me avoid any bowel issues, so far. Radiation side effects have a way of sometimes happening months or even years after treatment. I am nearing 5 months post treatment and still have urinary impacts. Hoping they go away.
To the OP, I would skip the TULSA and go for the radiation now. The recurrence rates for the TULSA are just too high, especially as it appears in your case.
Replies to "@clevelandguy Proton rad can definitely hit the bladder. I know because it hit my bladder. 5..."
@oldgreenpaint
Proton radiation has a fixed length beam, sounds like something went wrong with your procedure. The beam length was not set up properly? The gel should have protected your bladder?
@oldgreenpaint Yes, proton radiation can hit the bladder - if they do the (very complex) calculation wrong. Proton’s Bragg-Peak characteristics come into play with these treatments. This can be further minimized using a rectal spaced, but the Bragg-Peak is an inherent characteristic of protons that photons (X-rays) do not have.
Yes, radiation side-effects have a way of sometimes happening months or even years after treatment. Again, if they do it wrong and hit otherwise healthy nearby tissues and organs with radiation, there can be those late side-effects. But, what radiation doesn’t hit, it doesn’t damage.
I’m 5 years post-proton radiation treatments (28 sessions) and so far, nothing has gotten any worse than I had going into treatments.
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@oldgreenpaint
Thanks for that. I was not aware you could get five treatments of proton radiation. I thought the SPRT for proton was experimental?
I was considering the 28 sessions with a spacer gel in the hopes that getting 1/6 of the radiation each time might lessen the effects on my rectum or bladder?
I am worried that the radiation of sex will show up that year 3+. And ED or incontinence issues will start negating the advantages of radiation versus surgery?