Tempted not to bother with radiotherapy

Only you can decide on undergoing the treatment offered and you should do this in discussion with your oncologist. The oncologist would have offered RT because he thinks that it will improve your quality of life and, hopefully, survival prospects. I discussed surgery v RT with a urologist who considered that the side effect risks (in my case) would be less with RT. I then opted for RT. For what it's worth I asked several times before RT how long HT might work in my case. Each time the answer was the same: "don't know", reason being "every case is different". When I pressed the point I was told that HT might only last 9 months, but 2-3 years was common. My uncle has been on HT for 10 years after laser surgery and i'm aware of others for whom HT has worked for >10 years. Again, every case is different. It was made clear to me that HT wasn't a solution, but was an important part of the "gold standard" HT/RT combination radical treatment. When all this was explained I became keen to have RT and became more than a tad concerned when it was delayed by a few months. I finished my course mid-May and as I said in another of your threads the side effects have abated and the cancer is now in remission. I insisted on having IMRT which is offered by many NHS hospitals. IMRT enables much more accurate zapping of the tumour, thus reducing damage to healthy tissue and potential long term side effects. I'm still on HT and have been told I could be on it for many years although most are on it for 1-3 years post-RT. People I've spoken to are generally more concerned about HT than RT.

I didn't have any difficulty in choosing RT - the alternative of merely relying on HT looked much worse. This is a nasty disease and none of the treatments are easy. I was careful to follow the radiographers' advice on full bladder/empty bowel because this reduces the RT side effect risk.

HTH

Viv

What you might not have considered is that late stage PCa can itself cause bowel and / or urinary incontinence either because of the tumour pressing on other organs or by spreading. So you could decline curative treatment on the remote possibility of these problems (less than 4% of men have urinary incontinence 5 years after RT, bowel incontinence hardly ever happens these days although about 10% have blood or mucus in their stools 2 years post-RT. No data as far as I know for how many men are in both groups) and then find that in the final stages of your untreated disease you get them anyway.

I think that this is just a bit of pre-match nerves; stop reading stuff and talk to your nurse specialist or someone in the RT department at the hospital.

Good luck Christopher. I'm a year

Post RT and no side effects

Bri

Thank you all for your outstanding comments,because of you I have left the dark place and come into the light.

I cannot tell you how much you have helped me over the past 24 hours.

God bless you all

Chris

Hi Chris,

Glad to see you are going for it, well done, the people on this forum had the same effect in lifting my spirit, they are brilliant.

Lyn is spot on by the way, I did too much reading and got myself a bit down and had the pre-match nerves but the people on here got me through it. As Kevin also said, their is good camaraderie at the hospital with other patients and I am also enjoying it, sounds silly doesn't it?

I started RT last Monday 04/08/2014 and had my 6th session today, so far no side effects although it is early days.

I am posting my treatment journey on the forum as I progress, so you can follow me all the way if you wish, I will post any side effects or issues I have for your and others information.

Good luck and best wishes to ALL who are fighting cancer.

Regards,

Gerry

I found RT quite a fun experience. I met many interesting people in the waiting room. Lots of good natured banter. At the end of my treatment j even asked the radiographers slightly tongue in cheek if they'd like to do a few more treatments. Shaking their heads, they explained I'd had a big dose so no more. The next Monday I didn't know what to do with myself: no RT!

Good luck, Viv

Hi Chris,

It is quite common to need to P more frequently during and for some time after ending RT. For a short time it got as bad as 8 times a night in my case but this gradually reduced until after a couple of months or so post RT it was back to my pre RT frequency of twice nightly. Rather unusually, I became a little constipated during RT, possibly due to a different and restricted diet during the period. Like many others, I subsequently experienced mucus with stools for some months post RT before this stopped. Some people also find a little blood in their stools. This may even happen years on due to veins becoming rather more fragile due to the RT a consultant told me.

Hope it goes well for you.