Adjuvant radiation therapy after radical prostectomy

gmen308

I have stage T3b prostate ca with a gleason score of 7 , the seminal vesicles also had cancer in them. I had a radical prostatectomy 2 weeks ago. If my 6 week PSA is not low I will need radiation. I appreciate any info anyone can give me on this.
I have read about adjuvant radiation. Does anyone know anything about this or had any experience with this?
Thanks I appreciate any information you can give me.
Gene

JoeMac

Life after PC Treatment
Aloha Gene,
This is a tough place to be. I opted for EBRT/IMRT because I had 12/12 cores, G=9, and a rising PSA. My case was particularly bad, as I was in the 10% that get rectum burned ulcer & damaged anis. Did you talk to a radiaologist oncologist prio to treatment. I am supprised that with a T3b you were recommended surgery, unless this was assigned after surgery.
My EBRT/IMRT was so bad during the first three weeks, I tried to quit. I'm not trying to scare you here, many...many...many men go through EBRT with very few side effects.
Just make sure you take care of any hemorrhoids or uretha strictures prior to radiation.
http://www.yananow.net/
is a good place to ask questions, many men, many experiences.
Faith, Hope, & Love,
Joe

blueocean

radiation after surgery
Yes, I had surgery and a PSA of 0.1 afterwards. I was Gleason 7, T3a. I was advised to plan for radiation as soon as my pathology report came back as not organ confined. But the surgeon said to wait till I had regained urinary continence. So I started three months after the surgery. I'd advise don't hurry but don't procrastinate.

The radiation was not a problem for me, though it's a session every weekday for many weeks. There are choices to make about the specifics of the radiation. How large an area to cover, how large a dose to give overall. My oncologist said it's simple statistics, such and such a probability of killing a tumor of 1cm diameter for example, if the dosage is some number of Gray. Make a good choice, get informed.

Outcome for me has been great. PSA went to undetectable right away and stayed there, it's been nearly a year and a half since finishing radiation. My health is fine.

2ndBase

Radiation
I had a psa of 24 and Gleason of 9 and took one shot of Lupron about a month before I took 40 radiation treatments. That treatment gave me 5 more years of life and though my cancer is not gone, neither am I. The hormone therapy obviously changes things a lot but the radiation did not seem as bad. Fatigue is the worse side effect of the radiation for me, so I was fortunate. I hope things go as well for you.