Recurrent prostate cancer after 7 years

When I had radiation 12 years ago, they gave me A 6 Month Lupron shot. I had no idea what lupron did at the time. I had no noticeable side effects and didn’t realize they had given me a shot that could cause so many problems.

Nine years ago, I was put on ADT and have been on it since. I did take a short vacation figuring after eight years my Testosterone wouldn’t come back, But it came back pretty quickly Even though I was 77. So I went right back on ADT. I got a lot of hot flashes in the beginning, but that was really the only side effect that bothered me. Years later, I had to exercise regularly in order to keep up my muscle strength. I also have taken bones strengtheners for the last eight years. Some people get fatigue from ADT I did not.

Proton therapy is very useful for many people. It does have fewer side effects than photon therapy But in the long-term, the differences are minimal. A Stanford study showed that people who had photon therapy had a 3% chance of another cancer. Those who did not have radiation had a 2 1/2% chance of another cancer.. Not much difference there.

Proton therapy is done in five sessions. If your cancer is extensive, that may not be enough and you may need 20 sessions or so to treat it. It all depends on what it was found in your biopsy. One person in this forum recently mentioned that they were told they could not have proton therapy because they needed more than five sessions.