Treatment options
I have just joined this group and would welcome any input from others. I am 72 yrs. old. I was diagnosed with Pca in Nov, 2022 after a biopsy. A MRI, bone scan, and PSMA Pet Scan all indicated that my cancer was contained in the prostate. My PSA was a 5.3 prior to my biopsy. My Medical Oncologist suggested that I consider hormone therapy as a bridging therapy until I decide on a definitive treatment option. I have been on Casodex for the past 15 months. My PSA has been at 1.6 for the past year. I have experienced some side effects from my hormone therapy, including some hot flashes and some gynecomastia. I have been researching potential definitive treatment options and am leaning towards radiation therapy. I have not yet met with any radiation oncologists. My Medical Oncologist recommends the more standard IMRT treatment with five day/week treatments over a period of 5-8 weeks. I have read quite a bit about MRI guided SBRT, where the treatment is given over a five day period instead in obviously much greater radiation doses. Apparently, SBRT is becoming the standard of care at many Centers of Excellence. If I decided on SBRT, I would need to travel to a medical center where that treatment option is available. Like everyone with Pca, I am tring to select a treatment option that will have the greatest chance of success and minimize both short and long term side effects. I would appreciate any input from others that have had SBRT as their treatment option.
Welcome
we are so glad you have joined our community. It is great that you are reaching out and being an advocate for yourself. While I hope our community members respond here with their personal experiences with SBRT, I am sending you over this forum discussion: https://prostatecancer.net/forums/anyone-get-sbrt and this article from one of our advocates with his experience: https://prostatecancer.net/living/stress-challenges. I hope this is helpful. Jill, prostatecancer.net team I was diagnosed recently with Prostate cancer with stage 1 contained in prostate. I met with multiple radiation oncologists in multiple leading hospitals around the country. I was recommended with these options MRI guided Linac Radiation, CyberKnife, Proton therapy, and Beam therapy. There is Tulsa procedure not sure insurance will pay for it and not great research stats exist on it. Some recommended active surveillance for some time. Everyone thinks their options are better than others. I am still not sure which of these are best option to minimize the side effects. I am still researching on it, love to hear experiences of members who opted for these treatments.
it is great that you are doing your research and I really hope our community members respond here with their experiences. In the meantime, you can go to our forums section and use our search bar to find previous discussions about these treatments: https://prostatecancer.net/forums. Jill, prostatecancer.net team
