Proton therapy

Hi thanks for reaching out. With so many treatment options out there, it can be very overwhelming. I am hoping our community members respond here with their personal experience with this. In the meantime, one of our advocates wrote a three part article about his experience with Proton Therapy. Here is the first article (in this article are links to the other two parts) https://prostatecancer.net/living/diagnosis-psa-biopsy. I hope this is helpful for you. Please keep us posted on your consult and further testing. Jill, prostatecancer.net team

Mahalo Jill.....had teleconference with radiologist this Morning ...so now have had one with surgeon and the one today with radiologist. Had about an hour long discussion about all the various treatments and most importantly which would be the best for my condition based on the biopsy results. For those seeking some answers to basic questions about what to do for their own treatment here is what I took away from that discussion;
1) Each and every patient is different ...there is no one size fits all for these treatments.
2) If you are t2c or above with any complicating factors it puts you in the upper to high end of the aggressive scale and likely omits several of the treatments available especially if most/all of your prostate is involved/compromised. For me that meant EBRT or Prostatectomy. Most all of my prostate is compromised so a 5-6 week EBRT for me. HDR not recommended due to how tissue needs to be done.
3) Consider that if prostatectomy is the chosen treatment you will be able to tell immediately if your cancer returns because you will have zero to very low PSA readings.
4) All treatments have side effects and those effects are different in intensity and duration for everyone.
5) ADT -hormone therapy isn't usually done with Prostatectomy and usually done with radiation.
6) Success rates are generally pretty much the same across the board for treatments but again your case may point to a specific treatment option over others.
7) if you choose to have radiation first then a later prostatectomy may be off the table due to how extensive the treatment was and the amount of scar tissue resulting from that EBRT


I chose to have the prostatectomy and my decision was facilitated by the fact that I have had ED issues due to Pyronnies disease for over twenty years so that side effect wasn't what it would be to others. The fact that I could have the surgery and hopefully cancer free for at least several years (and maybe for good) before dealing with any kind of returning issues which could then be treated with some of the other radiation treatments is what I considered to be the basis for that call.
Again I am no expert having only started my journey through this disease but thought that these little tidbits just might help some of you along the way. Aloha and Good Luck to you all.

Regarding #2 ...I meant to say that it puts you in the upper level two to lower level 3 in the agressive scale....which is intermediate/aggressive not just intermediate.