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168.5 Gy's of radiation

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Posted 3/20/2013 7:36 PM (GMT 0)

I have had 169 Gy’s of radiation deposited in my body from the seed implants and IGRT. I was wondering if anybody else has had this much exposure or am I the only one that lights up at night? J

 

 

Posted 3/20/2013 7:53 PM (GMT 0)
You have me beat by 103 Gy.
Posted 3/20/2013 8:00 PM (GMT 0)
Dave, I should have my final report in the next few days and I'll give you my numbers.

That said, I'm not sure how HDR brachy compares to LDR. On one hand, the radiation amount is higher, but then it's only in your body for a few minutes...

Michael
Posted 3/20/2013 8:08 PM (GMT 0)
Michael,

Radiation in Grays is a cumulative measure of exposure at a given area -- a 'dose'. So the number of Gy will probably be similar -- you will just get the dose faster because your radiation is more intense.
Posted 3/20/2013 8:45 PM (GMT 0)
118.14 millicuries (mCi) for me with my 66 seeds.
Posted 3/20/2013 9:31 PM (GMT 0)
That's the highest I've heard. 150gy is high; I had 130 gy, 85 seeds and 45 IMRT.
Posted 3/20/2013 9:39 PM (GMT 0)
I had 142 gys, but that was based on two bouts of RT, spread over a 9 year period, for two different kinds of cancer.

david
Posted 3/20/2013 9:48 PM (GMT 0)
David,

I don't remember where your other radiation was. If it wasn't close to your prostate I don't think the doses add up, although I could be wrong. I think you can only add up the Gray numbers if the areas treated overlap. If you get 60 Gy to your elbow and 60 Gy to your knee, I think that adds up to 60 gray (to your elbow and your knee). If they overlap, say, 60 Gy to your arm and then 60 Gy to your elbow then that would be 120 Gy to your elbow and 60 Gy to the rest of your arm.
Posted 3/20/2013 10:03 PM (GMT 0)
I'm at around 50 so far on the way to 70.2 so hope I never catch up with you. Trivia fact: if you get 1.8 grays per day, as I'm getting, that's roughly equivalent to being one mile from ground zero at Hiroshima. The difference is this is focused radiation, not whole body.
Posted 3/20/2013 10:26 PM (GMT 0)
PeterDisAelard,

Most of the Gy's were given to my prostate. 123.5 in seeds and 45 IGRT. The IGRT had some mapping outside the prostate.

Dave
Posted 3/20/2013 10:38 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry David, I was talking to the other David (ie. "purgatory".) I seem to remember that his first radiotherapy was to his head/neck/throat area and so he can't add up those Grays to the ones for his prostate cancer since the treatment areas didn't overlap. I know that your IGRT and your seeds overlap so you are go for addition.
Posted 3/20/2013 10:47 PM (GMT 0)
To many Dave and David on HW!

yeah
Posted 3/20/2013 11:25 PM (GMT 0)
my first was 70gys, neck and throat, old school unguided RT in 2000. The PC related was SRT 72 gys IMRT. In both cases, a lot of damage was done. My oncologist said with both RT events, plus all the radiation based scans I have had, I am beyond a safe lifetime limit, and considered high risk for secondary cancers as the result of radiation. He said some people can tolerate radiation far better than others. Said that people that sunburn real easy, get what they called in the old days, "sun sickness", and those that have no tolerance for heat in general, usually fare worse with radiation in general. I was in all of those categories to begin with.

the specialist I saw recently in Charleston, said, after looking at my CT and MRI scans, said he had never seen anyone's lower insides so messed up and damaged from radiation before.  Which would make any future operations in the area, including the bladder removal one being considered, very risky and complex.  jury is still out on that deal, waiting to talk it over with my own doctor next week

david in sc

Post Edited (Purgatory) : 3/20/2013 5:28:09 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 3/21/2013 12:03 PM (GMT 0)
My IMRT was about 48 gy in 25 fractions. My HDR brachytherapy was 45 gy in two fifteen minute session. Total of 93 gy. The HDR is delivered in such a short period of time that it has the cancer cell damaging power of the much higher gy dose of seeds, that are delivered over a three to six month period. It is all a matter of how much dose over a given period of time.

My rad onc told me that the power of the one tiny HDR pellet is such that if left in the body, fatal damage would be delivered by day three. Of course the catheters are closed at the end in the body so the pellet, which is attached to a wire, can not remain in the body.
Posted 3/23/2013 4:59 PM (GMT 0)
Finally got the treatment summary from my IMRT and I received 45 Gy in 25 fractions or 1.8 per day. I was disappointed my summary didn't include the numbers from my HDR brachytherapy and I'm still trying to get that info.

My experience at UCLA is that the brachytherapy part of the Radiation Oncology group and the IMRT side are not as well coordinated as I had assumed them to be going into my procedure. At least that was my impression in my interactions with various personnel (including doctors) and it's subsequently been reinforced in details like the treatment summary that only covers half of my treatment.
Posted 3/25/2013 12:49 PM (GMT 0)
Michael,

Please provide your updated numbers once you receive them. I am concerned about over exposure of radiation and what it will do to us down the road.

Dave

Posted 3/29/2013 11:00 AM (GMT 0)
Dave,

Just finishing up my combonation treatment. My DART (IMRT) dose was 7200 cGy and my seed dose is estimated at 8500cGy. I think that puts us in the same range. However I have had virtually no side effects and my first PSA came back at 0.4. No complaints here!

Greg
Posted 3/29/2013 12:51 PM (GMT 0)
Gregz263,

Interesting that you had IMRT first then seeds followed up by IMRT again. Never seen that before.

Dave

Posted 3/29/2013 3:16 PM (GMT 0)
Thats the standard plan for Dattoli. The follow up DART targets only the pelvic lymph system.
Posted 3/29/2013 4:10 PM (GMT 0)
greg,

more amazed that your body tolerated that much radiation without any side effects at this point. not to be discouraging, but with radiation, sometimes side effects can take months or even years to show up. hope you stay clear of them.

david
Posted 3/29/2013 4:25 PM (GMT 0)
David,

Not discouraging at all.
Prior to my treatment i talked with numerous men who were treated at DCC, additionally with those treated alongside me. Seems my results are common. I think the experience of the radation oncologist is paramount to the minimization of any side effects.

Happy Easter!

Greg
Posted 4/16/2013 6:39 PM (GMT 0)
I'm reviving this thread since I finally got my info from my HDR brachytherapy. As mentioned earlier, my IMRT was 45 Gy over 25 treatments, which seems pretty standard. My HDR dose was 24 Gy in four fractions, with two in each session (1 week apart).

That's sure the lowest of what has been reported here. Earlier in this thread there were two different opinions on whether or not it's an apples-to-apples comparison for HDR brachy. Still, JNF had 45 Gy for his HDR brachy.

I'm not sure what this means--if anything.

Michael
Posted 4/17/2013 8:39 PM (GMT 0)
Michael,

So does that add up to a total of 141 GY's? (24 x 4 = 96 + 45)

Dave

Posted 4/17/2013 8:46 PM (GMT 0)
The summary page I was provided by UCLA states that "total dose" for the brachytherapy was 24 Gy. Compared to what I'm reading here, that doesn't sound like very much. My closest apples-to-apples comparison in this thread is JNF, who had 45 Gy for his HDR brachytherapy.
Posted 4/17/2013 9:18 PM (GMT 0)
Dave, what size prostate did you have at the time.I'm guessing it was fairly large to need 123 seeds.Mine is 45 cc so I'm thinking I would need quite a few myself.
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