← Return to Decision time SBRT, IMRT or surgery

Discussion
harvey33 avatar

Decision time SBRT, IMRT or surgery

Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 1 hour ago | Replies (36)

Comment receiving replies
Profile picture for harvey33 @harvey33

OK, I am at a point that I need to make a decision and move on down the road. My first thought was surgery but with a abdominal aortic aneurysm, and COPD (fairly mild) I decided against that at this point. I have explored and continue to do so SBRT, and traditional long session radiation, as well as now Focal Therapy. The Focal Therapy sounded good but in doing more research I have found it to be still pretty new and maybe a step above taking the let's watch it approach with a pretty high chance of reoccurrence.

If I go down the SBRT road how bad are the side effects and what have some real life experiences been with you folks? The incontinence is the one that really concerns me and what quality of life would be if that was a long term issue.

Jump to this post


Replies to "OK, I am at a point that I need to make a decision and move on..."

@harvey33
My brother at 77 had five SBRT radiation sessions. Three years later, he’s doing fine and his PSA is doing fine. He had some urinary issues that were solved by taking Flomax every other day for a couple of months. The hot flashes from ADT didn’t completely stop for about nine months, Now he has no side effects at all.

This is pretty normal for the side effects. Somebody has when they have SBRT radiation.

Rick Davis, who runs the ancan.org Organization with multiple meetings for prostate cancer patients, and other problems, was treated with five sessions of SBRT 17 years ago and has have no side effects at all for the last 16 years. Just to get an example of a long-term patient. He had a Gleason eight.