Quite a few years later ... an excellent PSA at .2

Just an update on my PSA level. My level at treatment at 2008 was hovering around 4.  My last three levels have been .2, .3, and .2.  Fantastic!

New PSA -- 0.9

My most recent PSA result was 0.9. Hurray!

9 Months Later....

Here we are 9 months post-treatment. At 4 months, I had my PSA taken. As you recall from earlier posts, the cancerous cells are not eliminated with treatment -- their ability to reproduce is denied. Hence, if the treatment is successful, my PSA will slowly go down over a number of years. That is the theory. My first PSA? My highest PSA was 4.6 and my 4 month PSA went all the way down to 1.8! Talk about happy excitement.

What about morbidity? Better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams. Everything, and I mean everything, is just the same as before treatment. The treatment had no lasting effects on me whatsoever other than to make me a huge proponent of proton therapy.

10 Days Post Treatment

Having finished treatment 10 days ago, what is the report on side effects?
Nothing has changed. I continue to have a slight urinary stricture such that my flow is not as strong as it was before treatment. A very slight bother. No pain or burning, just not as strong or fast. And I have to pee more often...Jane likes the increase in need to pee when we take long driving trips. The docs tell me that all this should go away after 2 weeks but I have seen no sign of a decrease yet.

Being away from Loma Linda means being back to work and having my usual responsibilities which has meant that I have not kept up my exercise schedule...especially during the busy holidays. I plan to return to that at the first of 2009. There has been some decrease in my energy level but nothing significant.

Here's a Treat! Meet the Team

Unlike any other hospital I have ever been in, Loma Linda is a fun, warm, welcoming place. The people here are unbelievable. Without saying any more about them, take a look at this video of the people I have had the most contact with -- I need say no more.....

Protons 105 -- Comparing the Possibility of a Secondary Cancer Caused by Radiation Treatment

We all know the dangers of radiation. When you get an xray, the technicians step out of the room. When you get dental xrays, you get a lead bib put over your sternum. Here at Loma Linda, when I receive treatment, everybody leaves but me and the the door to my room gets locked so someone can't stumble in.

The benefits of xrays in general and proton treatment in particular (should I say hypothesized or proven?) outweigh the risks. And, the technicians would be subjected to many times the dose that I receive since they do it all day long and year after year. But, it would be nice to know what the risks are.

Apparently, these risks arise from the creation of neutrons during the delivery of the protons. I gather, but have not been able to determine, that the interaction of the protons with body tissue creates neutrons. And those neutrons could cause a secondary cancer.

A study just came out which found that the risks of a secondary cancer from proton radiation are lower than for photon radiation. You can check it out at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080922122421.htm . The study notes that 6.4% of proton therapy patients got a secondary cancer. Now, I don't have the entire study and it traces patients all the way back to when proton therapy first began (1974-2001) and does not appear to be limited to prostate cancer treatment. Sooooo, take those figures with a huge grain of salt. The study also found that patients treated with conventional radiation later got a secondary cancer at exactly double the proton rate -- at 12.8%. I think it is that comparison that is the most important aspect of the study. The conventional radiation percentage has to be smaller these days also because the ability to focus conventional radiation has gotten so very much better than it was in the old days. But, again, the important finding was that proton treatment resulted in fewer secondary cancers than conventional treatment.

Protons 104 -- A Quick Overview

Take a look at this link for a quick overview of proton therapy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy
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