Lessons Learned: My Experience With Prostate Cancer

[Martinjmpr]

OK, I went through this in 2022 and I'm surprised your doctor didn't recommend EXTERNAL radiation. My brother who is 1 year older than me and a family friend both went through this before I did and both chose radiation, and that's what I chose as well.

There is a family history of prostate cancer (dad had it at 62 and my brother was diagnosed at 58.) So when I was diagnosed at 59, it wasn't a surprise.

There are different types of radiation therapy. The one you talked about, INTERNAL radiation, where they plant a radioactive "seed" is one but I opted for the targeted EXTERNAL radiation treatment. There are a couple of different kinds, one is called "CyberKnife" and consists of 5, 20 minute treatments. However, that was not approved by my insurer (TriCare) so I went with the older type of radiation which was 20, 5 minute treatments over the space of a little less than a month.

My dad did the prostate removal but that was back in 2002 and I don't know that they had the same radiation options. It is a major surgery and one I did not want to have unless it was absolutely necessary. After discussing it with my doctor, I went with the radiation treatment.

My treatment was completed in April 2022. At the time of my diagnosis my PSA was 6.5 and my Gleason score was 7.

As of last month, my PSA is down to 1.4 and seems to be dropping. My brother (who was treated a year before me and had the CyberKnife) is down below zero.

My side effects have been minimal. Worst one is low testosterone but the doctors won't start treating that until my PSA drops below .5.