SBRT treatment: Any tips about food, drink, supplements?

Thanks for this info @heavyphil I am surprised that I got very short list. I was asked to stop my herbal drink. No caffeine (coffee, tea) and no carbonated drinks. I found "unusual" that I need to eat many small meals (read: not my usual full breakfast, lunch, dinner that aren't small meals). Also I told my care team that I regularly move stool in the morning, and I planned to move a second time during the day an hour before SBRT. I was advised to not do the latter.

Vircet, I can’t believe you did not get that list of foods to avoid / it is KEY for successful SBRT!
Also, if there’s anything not on that list, but in your experience causes gas, bloating or burping, don’t eat it.
I ate nothing at all from dinner at 7PM to my treatments at 2PM the next day - and I still had some gas or stool in the wrong places.
Also, don’t SLURP any liquids! Seems like a small thing, but a dish of hot broth or cups of coffee can turn into intestinal gas and move your prostate to the wrong spot.
Phil

@gshep
I had 5 Mridian machine treatments that finished in 2023. Before I started treatment, I asked for a prescription of Flomax in case of urination issues. After the 3rd treatment, I needed it and overnight, it gave me relief. I was happy that I had it on hand.

Thank you for that information. Yes yours is starting before mine. Best wishes and please stay in touch

@gshep My SBRT treatment is probably ahead of yours. Mine is from April 9 to 21.
@scottbeammeup Thank you for list of foods to avoid. I didn't have that. But I got instructions to "eat many small meals and snacks throughout the day" and "avoid caffeine (coffee, tea) and carbonated drinks. Avoid sugarless gum and candies with sorbitol -- acts like a laxative."
@gshep I was told to stop taking my herbal drink. My radiation oncologist started me 10 days ago on Orgovyx and vitamin D. I asked by email if I can also take calcium, but I'm still waiting for response. I will ask again when I see my RO in person.

I was in my mid 50s, but my cancer was already at stage 4, so I wasn't going to live 12–15 more years to have those problems you mentioned if I didn't get the SBRT (both to my spine and prostate). I also wouldn't have benefited from super precise radiation, because since the cancer had spread to my spine, there was a good chance of undetected local spread around the prostate, and better to have a shot at catching that as well.

I hope to live long enough to see new, milder treatments developed for stage 4, so that I can grumble and bore people about how tough we had it in the old days. 🙂

@gshep @scottbeammeup
I posted a reply about supplements and see scottbeammeup brought up the foods and drinks.

This too was gone over with me prior to start of treatments. Biggest issue with foods is gas. Gas in the rectum you do not want. It can move your prostate at the very time it is needed to have it in a proper position and not moving.

I can really post my experience with this one. I was told to keep up my protein so started to do a powder supplement and did not think about it. Then the next time I came in for my radiation treatment and they did the low dose xray to find my markers and set up paramters my prostate had moved. So they came in and moved me around saying I had gas in my rectum. They wound up having to move me around several times as the gas was moving my prostate.

Then they said did I eat any of the items (the list) and I said no. They went I got home I looked at my protein supplement and was from soy beans. I told my techs next time when I came in and they said yep that was it as you look good today.

So if you do what I did and take a powder or supplement make sure it is not on a food list that causes gas.

How old are you? Have you seen the discussions in this forum about how SBRT can cause many issues after 12 or 13 years. If you’re in your 70s, it’s not as big a deal as if you’re in your 50s or 60s where decades of problems can occur.

Are you getting an MRI using one of the newer machines like the MRIdian SBRT, which has a much narrower beam so that tissues near the spot being radiated aren’t damaged.

You should also get one of the SpaceOAR (or equivalent) inserts to reduce the amount of radiation to your rectum.

@gshep
Please talk to your R/Os that are going to do your radiation treatments regarding their requirements to take or not take certain supplements before, during, after treatments end.

I want to pass on my experience with this and the reason for my post. When I got my second consultation with UFHPTI prior to starting my 30 rounds of proton radiation, they gave me a list of supplements they did not want me to take.

Why? Their researched showed that many supplements do help protect cells with oxidation damage. The problem is that normal cell are protected and so will the cancer cells as well. So they did not want anything protecting the cancer cells from the damage they want done to them from radiation treatments.

Now UFHPTI did say there are other studies that contradict this but their policy was coming off all supplements that have been shown to provide prevention of oxidation and damage to cells so they would not hinder the damage they wanted done to cancer cells.

Now your medical facility or your R/Os might not agree with this and that is why I posted check with them on what their policy is.

UFHPTI did add one supplment I was not taking. It was pure cranberry juice. Why, statistic showed help prevent urinary infections. You are damaging more than just prostate but urinary vessels, seminal vessels, colon, etc. I hated the taste of cranberry juice and asked if could take capsule and was told yes. Still taking it 1.5 years after radiation ended and no never got a urniary infection.

I was a supplment fanatic. I took so many supplements when they handed me the list of not what to take everything on their list of not take I was taking.

My radiation treatments did cause some minor fatique, increased urnination, more urgency, but did not need anything to help with them. My R/Os who I met weekly would go over all my side affects and always said they had many medications that could help with side affects if there was something really affecting my lifestyle too much.
I hoped this helped at least from my personal experience with your question.

I was told to avoid taking any supplements at all during SBRT except for a daily multivitamin and, even then, to not take more than 100% of the RDA of any vitamin or mineral. I was also given a list of foods to avoid during treatment. I was told to chew my food very well, and only eat cooked vegetables and not raw. The list of foods I was told to avoid was:

Asparagus
Beer
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Corn
Dried beans, peas, and other legumes (cooked OK)
Garlic
Leeks
Milk and other dairy products with lactose (if lactose-intolerant)
Onions
Prunes
Carbonated (fizzy) drinks, such as sodas and sparkling waters.
Sugar alcohols, such as xylitol, sorbitol, and mannitol. Sugar-free foods often have sugar alcohols.

Hope this helps and that your treatment goes well!