radiation/imrt/recurrance

I never experienced fatigue
Muckdown

Your doctor is the best person to answer your questions.
You can research in this forum threads about IMRT treatment with information from survivors regarding all aspects of recurrence and radiation treatment.

In my case with negative MRI and Bone scan, the protocol was of 37 sections (every day except Sundays), in a total of 68 Gys for a planned “attack” to the pelvic area (prostate bed and lymph nodes). I never experienced fatigue.
Radiation destroys cell’s DNA (benign and cancerous) therefore making it difficult for the cancer to replicate its duplication. Benign cells do better.
You can google this sentence “Radiation in Prostate Cancer” for detailed explanations.

Could you share info about your case. Such as histogram of PSA, Gleason score, biopsy and post operation pathologist report, etc.

Wishing you luck and a good treatment.
VGama

Remember that the PSA test may be very inaccurate. Mine is 71 coming down to 21 whike on Chemo. If yours is only 2 or 3 it may not be a problem. Radiation is supposed to kill the cancer. You need to really get informed so you can have an educated discussion with your doctor.

muckdown said:

psa informed
yes I agree about PSAs being inacurate.My urolgist pushed me into IMRT therapy,Havent had the ist session yet.I was scheduled for a physical and asked the doc for another psa check hopfully I won,t get billed for it,I start looking at info also.I did a few years ago when I had the prosate removed. When the psa,s after surgery were low I didn,t do anything to take care of my health. So Iam thinking the psa rise due to poor life style, I think when the latest results come back I will make grest strides in improving life style. Of course hard to do as home life is stresful. (relationship stuff) Even with a lower psa I will go ahead with the IMRT treatment.

Hormone treatment
I am from Adelaide Australia
prostectomy Da Vinci Nov2006 radiotherapy 9 weeks Jan-Feb2008
Hormone treatment 2010 3 months PSA .1 stopped reading went up 1.5 back on hormones for my life.Incontinence is crapp sling won't work Artificial Spfincter won't work Penis won't work Damn

redleg53 said:

I understand BIG TIME how realtionships are tough when once you " Root like rabbits " then it just goes away with your PSA

Visit a local cancer community
Muckdow

The info/data on your past events (tests and treatment) related to the prostate cancer is important for future progress on the disease.
Your case will be followed by several doctors of different specialities (urologists, radiologists, oncologists) and the data should be available to all of them. You should keep a record particularly on the crucial elements such as PSA, DRE, Biopsy, Gleason grade and score, Pathological stage, etc.
You can request a copy from the hospital/doctor where you had your surgery.

PSA is “manufactured” by the prostate gland and becomes a marker of cancer progression. After surgery without a prostate in place the PSA should be in the zeros, otherwise prostate cancerous cells were not totally removed and they still exist in your body (metastases).

After surgery, a PSA greater than 0.20 ng/ml, is indicative of recurrence. Your post says that your PSA is 3.0 which is way above the line for normal. Recurrence is a fact and you need a salvage treatment like radiation (IMRT) or a combination of IMRT with hormone therapy.

PSA tested in different Laboratories may give different results and some are inaccurate as suggested by Nowrest, but the difference is never that big of 2 or 3 points which you could relate as a cause of the recurrence.

You need to handle that family problem because “stress” is the worse enemy for a successful treatment of cancer. Your family needs to understand about your critical situation and I would recommend you to visit a local cancer community with a family member to get advice on how to confront the recurrence problem and any side effect from treatments (such as incontinence, loss of erection, etc).

All treatments cause side effects which you should be acquainted of. I would recommend you to google this sentence “treatment side effects for prostate cancer”.

Hope for the best.

VGama