Bone Pain

Hello Summerblue,

I have copied an excerpt from a paper on palliative treatment for bone metastasis for you. It is as follows:

"Radiation Therapy Targeting Bone Metastases
Men who experience pain from a bone metastasis will often be treated with radiation targeted directly to the metastasis. This will kill the prostate cancer cells and relieve the pain. (Note that radiation therapy used to treat bone metastases is completely unrelated to radiation therapy that might have been used earlier in prostate cancer treatment.)

External beam radiation therapy uses x-rays to kill the cancer cells that have settled in the bones. This type of treatment, sometimes referred to as spot radiation, is mapped out and planned very precisely by the radiation oncologist to ensure that the x-rays are targeting the metastasis and are not causing damage to the surrounding bone and muscle tissue.

Radiopharmaceuticals, or radioactive drugs, are injected into the body through a vein and settle in the bone metastases, at which point they release radiation to the local area and kill the cancer cells. The two drugs used for this procedure, samarium (Quadramet) and strontium (Metastron), are sometimes used in combination with chemotherapy."

Hope this helps and sorry to hear that your husband is continuing to suffer from this disease. My best to you and him.

Don

don826, Thank you for the information.  I am printing it out and I am going to give it to my husband to read and will take it to the doctors on our next visit this week.

  zufus, I don't know his recent psa # but he will be finding out when we go this week. 

 The thing is he just had a stent put into his bladder last week.  He first went to have an mri and bone scan when he started having the pain in his backside and that is when they found a blockage in his bladder.  At that time they saw no tumors in the backside area to be causing the pain.

 Now he is having a problem with leakage, which he is very down about, but I tell him it has only been a few days since the surgery and to give it alittle time. 

  He is in alot of pain and having so much pain walking, sitting and lying down.  The pain now is not only in his backside but in his lower legs also.  I am praying for him and I am grateful for both of your replys.

  I will try to post again, I am quite busy caring for him and my daughter.  I really do appreciate your thoughts.   Thanks again.

Post Edited (summerblue) : 3/9/2009 6:53:10 PM (GMT-6)