Yes Proton treatment can be good way to go, nothing wrong with such. There are other radiation protocols besides Proton and besides IMRT-Photon, besides 3DEBRT and besides "Cyberknife"(which also sounds impressive and probably is)????? What???? How come everyone is not aware of such????? Cyclotron-Neutron ray is a rare bird, rarer than the machines for Proton and both of them the cost is astronomical for either one of them, thats why not every place has them.
The other thing is Neutron is the most powerful ray, Proton second, and Photon third (used on patients) and should not be used by just Joe anybody as to collateral damage is possible, expertise is very important. Not because I say so, but data says so. I just happened to chose this when I was looking for the most powerful external radiation I could get, combined a powerful drug campaign at the same time...I needed blanking results, at least stacked in my favor...my stats/numbers were awesome enough. Anyway there are more options than most people are aware of on PCa. Internal radiations Brachy seeds either removable type (temporary HDR),or permanent in conjunction with radiations (brachy+ IMRT)even has different protocols to choose from even from within each on of those. Lots of choices out there with decent results it appears.
Do you know about
Neutron combined with Photon, 2- machines used separately to treat PCa and other cancers????? There are maybe two places in the USA that are doing this and 1-2 outside the USA that I heard about
. There are probably very few rad-onco docs whom are ready to give this protocol with utmost safety and learning curve would exist too, that may add to the mix, besides machinery costs and maintenance on them.
Here is the treatment basically I got: 10-sessions of Neutron exposures (multiple angles, might have been 8-10 I forget now) followed by 20-24 sessions (cannot remember now exactly) of IMRT-photon (mulitple angles). You do 5 days a week and rest up on weekends and come back and do it all again. The reasoning is that you don't want to much radiation given at any one time so as to avoid damage otherwise. IMRT's machine are great stuff compared to the older EBRT machines, Intensity Modulated Radio Therapy: means they can control delivery, depth levels, amount of exposure, and with accuracy(Dosemetrics I think is the lingo for exposure amounts given per session and locations) and newer machines have targeting equipment that can compensate even for when you breath as the gland may move. You can get various levels of radiations, there is a limit to what is considered safe maximum total radiation exposure levels, I also asked for and was told I would get such level.
There are alot of various radiation treatments, all can be decent, all could have side effects that need to be disclosed to the patients up front and candid. But, yes you can have quality of life issues that are important for men to consider also, plus you can radiate beyond the capsule and its perimeter, this is why salvage radiation is sometimes successful. In the old days 30 years+ ago radiation was primitive compared to today and collateral damage was very common, not so much today, of course expertise of whom is doing the proceedure is always a paramount thing in treatments on any method. Nothing is perfect with PCa, so lots of choice, lots of methodologies exist.
With any proceedure, surgery or whatever get to know all you can up front, so atleast you got some kind of informed idea as to what you may be signing up for, suggest you do not put total trust into the docs verbage of how perfect it all its and never has any patients with complications....yada...yada...yada. Verify what you can they can be biased or only tell you why they are your only salvation....which is not true to begin with. Get outside opinions on your own is always good for you. 