Proton Therapy

Received a call from a man yesterday who did proton therapy. He highly recommened this type of therapyover the others. He had this done at Loma Linda. The only difference between him and I, is he had this done while he still had his prostate.  My question is can this therapy be done on those who's next step is radiation after surgical removal of the prostate. This procedure seems less evasive than the others according to my research. 

Orickster 

Dear Orickster:

Yes, proton therapy can be used as a salvage treatment.  Shown below is a link that includes testimonials from three men who have gone that route.

http://www.protonbob.com/proton-therapy-testimonials.asp

Personally, I considered PBT as a primary treatment for my PCa but ultimately rejected it because most of the "evidence" was anecdotal, i.e. I could not find long term studies that proved its' efficacy.

If you want to seriously consider this option, I suggest you call one of the PBT centers and speak with one of their physicians about your case.

Tudpock

 

Orickster, The Dattoli Cancer Center has an interesting paper comparing Proton to IMRT. The article discusses the two as primary treatments, but the pros and cons would be similar for SRT. Try this link: http://www.dattoli.com/technology/proton.cfm. Of course keep in mind that Datolli is biased in favor of IMRT. An interesting article none the less. It is just very difficult knowing what to do with prostate cancer isn't it? Good luck to you.

Carlos

My father had proton treatment at Loma Linda 35 years after his prostate was removed. It kept him going another 10 years after with no ill effects. He told me that apparently there was a small piece of the prostate left after the initial surgery that developed PCa on its own that many years later.