HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

My last IMRT treatment is tomorrow

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 4/21/2017 12:18 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Folks,

Well I have reached the end after tomorrow it will be 40 sessions completed. Here is what they said I received it says 1 pelvis 2400cGy for 15/15 and then 1 pelvis 5400cGy 25/25. Now I'm not sure what this means other than 15 days at one dose and 25 days at another. I just hope it worked!!. I did not have hormone therapy with it as I told them I wanted to try it without it. They told me today that I will have a PSA test in 7 weeks and that will tell them. its hard for me to believe that my PSA will go from 14.8 to below 2. They said if its still elevated then the next step is hormones and if that's the case I have to find another way. I know my testosterone is low and the radiation probably made it much lower and its one of the reasons I feel like crap with weakness and no drive at all, its a struggle to work right now. Anyway I pray this worked but the techs didn't seem all that optimistic and when I ask does this therapy cure a lot of guys with PC? they said a few and that's where I just took a breath and said well I'll find out in a few weeks. I'd be interested to know what these numbers mean if you all understand it.

Thanks
Jay
Posted 4/21/2017 12:58 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Jay ! and congrats on the final fraction!!.......for me it was a strange feeling of mixed emotions ...thinking ,wow, what have I been through ...will it work ...won`t see the faces of the techs anymore ..etc.....I don`t know what to say about your info.....can`t remember your stats....add them if you can .........why didn`t you add the hormone therapy?....sorry to hear your feeling so bad ....for me it was easy with no fatigue,just the Lupron hot flashes that get old for sure . Anywho....good luck on the next PSA ....we all will be anxious to hear how you are doing ,so don`t go away !!.....David
Posted 4/21/2017 1:58 AM (GMT 0)
Jay
I'm no doc so don't know what the numbers mean. Generally you get 70-80 grays of RT to prostate and to lymph nodes with different amounts to each area. I had 68.2 grays to prostate bed after RP failed, then 75 grays to lymph nodes after recurrence.
You should not have skipped HT as it makes RT more effective. You will have fatigue for a few weeks but it will wear off.
Bob
Posted 4/21/2017 3:56 AM (GMT 0)
It means your whole pelvis got a dose of 54 Gy (to treat the pelvic lymph nodes) in 25 treatments. They also gave your prostate only a "boost" of 24 Gy in 15 treatments. So your prostate was treated as part of the whole pelvic field and when they gave it a separate boost for a total of 54 Gy + 24 Gy = 78 Gy, which is about average for conventional IMRT.

Please do not expect your PSA to go down from 14.8 to 2 in 7 weeks, if that is what you are saying. 7 weeks is very early - most guys don't get their first post-RT PSA until 3 months after treatment. I wouldn't know how to read a 7 week PSA, but I guess they have experience at that?

What you are feeling may be related to low testosterone, but the more common side effect of such a long radiation treatment schedule is fatigue. The best way to combat radiation-induced fatigue is exercise - lots of it. Even yoga has been found to be beneficial for it. Push yourself to do more. Do not take it easy.

You didn't include a signature, so I can't comment on ADT or odds of success.
Posted 4/21/2017 12:28 PM (GMT 0)
Jay - My situation is nothing at all like yours, but after SBRT primary treatment my RO did a PSA at 6 or 7 weeks out. She said that it would serve as two things:

1. It is long enough after treatment that most of the inflammation has subsided, so it acts as sort of a "new baseline" to measure future progress against.
2. It will probably not be a really low PSA, but at that early point, any decrease will be seen as a good sign.

My pre-treatment PSA was 5.69. At 6-7 weeks it was 4.75. At 4 months it was 3.03. Granted, this was primary treatment for a G3+4, so the numbers won't compare, but in my case it is the trend we are watching for.

Hope yours trends downward, too.
Posted 4/21/2017 12:36 PM (GMT 0)

Break60 said...
...8.2 grays to prostate bed after RP failed, then 75 grays to lymph nodes after recurrence.
You should not have skipped HT as it makes RT more effective. You will have fatigue for a few weeks but it will wear off.
Bob


This. I also did not want hormone therapy but my RO at MD Anderson would not do radiation without a six month round of Lupron.
Posted 4/21/2017 1:58 PM (GMT 0)
"Anyway I pray this worked but the techs didn't seem all that optimistic and when I ask does this therapy cure a lot of guys with PC? they said a few... "

I really, really question that, Jaydubs. From what I have learned, the overall RT cure rate in most cases is at least comparable to that of surgery.

Not sure what your techs were thinking of when they said that. Maybe they had a recent negative outcome case in mind. Anyway, don't let a negative remark like that get you down. If one looks into the actual statistics of RT treatment results, there is good reason to hope that the results of yours will be fine.

For example, I guess I could count myself as a "good outcome" radiation-as-primary guy. (See my numbers below). So it does happen.

Don't give up hope.
Posted 4/21/2017 3:30 PM (GMT 0)
81GyGuy,

Thanks for the encouraging words of hope. I don't know why the tech said that the way he did maybe he was having a bad day. I did what they told me with all the RT treatment so I guess all I can do now is wait. Do the PSA test several weeks from now. I need to pay attention to what types of food I'm eating and start taking the RIGHT vitamins to help my body recover, so I'll start looking into the nutrition part of this recovery. If you all have any thoughts or ideas on food and supplements please feel free to share.

Thanks
Jay
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply