What are common side effects of salvage radiation therapy?

Not sure what salvage radiation is. I had 28 treatments of your basic prostate radiation, plus
Lupron hormone shot. The rectum does narrow some, usually returns to normal in a few months.
I've had discomfort too and stool softeners help. You have mentioned this to your oncologist?
All the best. Prayers from this end.

Hey @rad62
I had that side effect during my salvage radiation to a small extent. I also got the occasional bout of diarrhea. Once the radiation was done with, I went back to normal pretty quickly.

@q95oldies , Salvage radiation, is similar to initial radiation treatment but it's done after RP if there's still some cancer suspected. i.e. your PSA goes up and / or there's some seen on a scan after surgery. I think it's typically done at a lower dosage as compared to radiation for initial treatment.

Yes, I had bowel and bladder side effects (SEs) during and for a couple of weeks after Salvage Radiation. So did a friend being tx'd at the same time.
Good news: 2 - 4 wks after radiation therapy ended, SEs disappeared.
Reality: Different degrees of urinary urgency, diarrhea and pain common.
I had full blown Radiation Proctitis, and mine was extremely bad. My friend's was not as severe.
Not a lot available to manage the pain.
Good luck. I hope it does not get worse, but it may.
Note: Layperson understanding.

After radiation, I had relentless burning, all the time, not just while peeing. It took
3-4 weeks to go away. I guess from proctitis?? Sudden diarrhea too. Most of that
is gone now. Some fatigue and hot flashes from Lupron.

Thanks for your input, very helpful, wishing you the best on your journey.

Thanks for your input,very informative to hear what side effects others are dealing with.
I had 11th of 25 whole pelvic Radiation this morning, it will be followed sequentially with 3 sessions of sbrt to pet positive lymph node. R.Oncologist says 50/50 chance of cure.
Hoping for the best.

Thanks for your input

Your welcome. Oddly, I get little feedback from my oncologist. About the same with my urologist. Basically why I got into this forum, to get more information. Good luck to you. Prayers from this end!!

I had salvage radiation, 39 treatments, back in 2013. I am still incontinent and have frequent urges.

Dr's are all different, and sadly, don't get paid to chat too much.

My surgical follow ups are about 3 min, "you're psa looks good, see ya in three months" almost literally.

My RO was awesome, "so what would you like to talk about, he'd sit there and answer questions for an hour if you wanted. After that the nurse would ask if you thought of any other questions while talking to the doc. The experience was so night and day it was wild. On top of that, they are owned by the same hospital group. Just weird.