Beginning prostate cancer treatment

Thank you for sharing your experiences. 26 more treatments to go! The worst for me is that the hospital is 2 1/2 hours from where I live so I am staying with an old friend during the week. It seems to be a blessing in disguise because we are enjoying reconnecting!

Good for you. You will find, I’m confident, that you will have many more positive outcomes from this journey. I’ve had moments of fear and sadness, even anger, but they pass when I consider all the family and friends (and fellow survivors) who have rallied around me. Much joy, my friend!

Sounds like you're here at the Scottsdale facility. That's where I was treated. You're in good hands.

I’m in the same position as you with 4+3. I’m waiting on PSMA pet scan results which I should have next week. If it shows no spread, I’m leaning toward no hormone therapy. No need in rushing treatment decision as I have probably had cancer 5 years or more. At most, I may have proton therapy and then try oral hormone therapy after radiation. Some radiologist think pre radiation hormone therapy not that helpful and shrinking prostate not required before radiation. ( see study from university of Michigan, Daniel Spratt is his name , I think.

@bandit11, what did you learn from the scan results. What treatment did you choose?

PSMA Pet indicated no evidence of spread outside of prostate. Decided on proton therapy to begin in very near future. Not doing pre treatment hormone therapy, but possibly may try a very, very short course of oral hormone therapy post radiation. That way I can ‘bail out’ if not well tolerated. Best, Ron

Bandit11 I'm assuming you've discussed this with your radiation oncologist. My Gleason was 4+4 and my brother's was 4+3. We've both had the hormone therapy in conjuction with Proton Therapy. Our radiation oncologists recommended the dual treatment based on the research of the effectiveness of the treatment. The research indicates that the stage of cancer we and you have the combination treatment improves our chances of no reoccurring cancer from 58% to 82%. Within 5 years. Taking the hormone therapy before radiation seems the best approach. There are side effects but they do go away over time.

I have discussed with two different radiologists and have read all the research I can find that seems to be available on the subject. While hormone therapy definitely improves outcomes as to recurrence, it can cause other health issues ,both short and long term, that mitigate its positive effect. In my case, I am more interested in quality of life with length of life a secondary consideration but an important one. I will say that one has to be careful as to how any of these outcomes results are applied. For example, my particular 5 year recurrence estimate based on my Decipher Test is 2.6 percent with radiation only. Cutting it in half reduces it to 1.3 percent. At my age 74, reducing my quality of life for 6 months to a year is not worth it to me but everyone's considerations are different. I start the preliminaries for Proton therapy later this month. I hope you and your brother are doing well!

I am starting prostate radiation treatment April 11 what will i be experiencing my PSA was 5.3 in November I had mine removed about 11 years ago

If it's Proton Beam Radiaton you will feel nothing at all. I didn't.