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What treatments for prostate cancer while on a blood thinner (Plavix)?
I recently had a stent installed which requires use of Plavix for minimum of 6 months. What treatment options are available while on this medication. Currently favorable intermediate cancer. Options presented are adaptive SBRT and question is with or without spacer gel.
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Taking Plavix (clopidogrel) increases the risk of bleeding in the urinary tract or rectum during and after prostate SBRT, but it is generally manageable and not an absolute block to treatment. Doctors carefully weigh this higher bleeding chance against the need to prevent blood clots from heart conditions.
Here is the article disinformation comes from
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8485025/
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1 Reaction@jeffmarc Thank you for the information. Are you aware of any studies that evaluated the risk of using spacers (risk of bleeding during insertion) versus the benefit received for patients on anticoagulants
@lev4735
I have not seen any studies that discussed those types of problems putting in the spacer. I have never heard of anybody complain about having a problem having the spacer put in. There is apparently a very rare chance of a problem
I have attended weekly Advanced prostate cancer meetings for years And participated in more than one form like this.
Do a web search using this and see what you find
“Is there any risk to putting in spacers like SpaceOAR, Barrigel, or BioProtect for prostate cancer radiation”
@jeffmarc Thank you
@lev4735, what did your team suggest regarding a spacer gel? Will you have radiation with or without?
The team recommended I proceed without the spacer. The rational is that advances in adaptive SBRT allows more precision with beam somewhat mitigating the longer term risk. Also discussed doing spacer while on Plavix but decided it was not worth the risk. Hope that helps