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cyberknife treatment

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User

Posted 18 Mar 2016 at 19:36

Hello,

Has anyone had cyberknife radiotherapy on their lymph nodes which are showing signs of prostate cancer. My husband has had one treatment to an affected node last year which resulted in the eradication of the affected node and may have treatment for two more spreads and then there is no funding for further treatment. So I am just wondering if anyone else is having on going cyverknife treatment for affected lymph nodes and how it is going.

Dinozo

User

Posted 19 Mar 2016 at 16:02

I have no knowledge of cyberknife treatments, but replying will bump you up the conversations.

Many people including myself go to recent conversations since last vist, because new conversations get moderated they do not appear.

Thanks Chris

User

Posted 19 Mar 2016 at 18:50

Cyberknife is another form of RT but a particularly precise one. I was wanting to go down this route myself as UCLH said they thought I had cancer in a lymph node. I therefore went back to The Royal Marsden who were one of the hospitals who were using it, only to be told they they were unconvinced from the scans I had cancer in this node so no treatment. (2 other hospitals shared the time opinion having viewed my scans). I am sorry funding seems to be drying up because if developments show UCLH to be right and the others wrong, I would hope to have Cyberknife.

Barry

User

Posted 19 Mar 2016 at 23:11

I had Cyberknife treatment on one lymph node last October.

No HT involvement.

Prior to that, PSA was 0.7

Three monthly post treatment was 0.4

Six month PSA is 0.3

So the treatment has had some positive effect.

The hospital where I had the Cyberknife does a telephone follow-up at three monthly intervals regarding how I feel; any side-effects and so on but no diagnostics.

There may be at some stage a further scan to ascertain the effectiveness of the treatment, but I don't know (should have asked!)

It's the first that I have heard of follow up treatment, I assumed that you would just get one bite of the cherry.

My local oncologist feels that on balance, I'm likely to get further mets in future but the Cyberknife treatment will have delayed things.

Dave.

Not "Why Me?" but "Why Not Me"?

User

Posted 21 Mar 2016 at 18:14

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your replies. We will find out on Weds 23rd what they intend to do. My only issue with the treatment (although I have not mentioned this to my husband) is that his psa went down whilst on the hormones but rose quite quickly once he came off the hormones after the cyberknife treatment and with further spread I feel they are treating the individual sites which are cropping up rather than the disease itself.

Katrina

User

Posted 21 Mar 2016 at 21:35

Hi Katrina,

I think this is an aspect that should be discussed with your husband's Consultant so you can understand his/her reasoning and at what point systemic treatment might be resumed. This can depend on an individual patient's responce to the RT on oligometataces and the consultant's view on whether to hit hard and quickly by treating systemically with HT and sometimes with chemo also.

Barry

User

Posted 22 Mar 2016 at 09:12

Hi Barry,
(husband has same name). I am aware this may be a good thing that the treatment has eliminated this one spot but as he has spread to two more areas (perhaps 3) and there is only funding for 3 treatments in total I am worried that if further spread occurs and cannot be treated by cyberknife we are wasting time in not treating the circulating disease. At the end of the day it is my husbands call and I do not and will not interfere with his choices whatever they are. It has already been mentioned that it may be a case of hormone therapy and chemotherapy which will be a choice he may not wish to take. His big passion is golf which he plays 5 times a week and treatment that interrupts that will be a hard call for him.
Anyway he will know tomorrow if they will give him two more treatments when he visits the Royal Marsden tomorrow.
Thanks for your reply
Katrina

User

Posted 24 Mar 2016 at 07:21

Hi Katrina,

Hope things went well yesterday and that the news was encouraging.

Dave

Not "Why Me?" but "Why Not Me"?

User

Posted 24 Mar 2016 at 11:14

Hello Dave,
They have decided to do the two more treatments he can be funded for. It has been made clear that this is not a cure but a blocking tactic to slow things down. The third site he has they are not sure if it is cancer or not but will discuss options for this after the treatment has finished. Both sites will be treated at the same time which we think will be 3 sessions of 90 mins radiotherapy (a long time to lay still). So fingers crossed!!
Katrina

User

Posted 24 Mar 2016 at 14:35

Hi Katrina,

Thanks for that

I thought my sessions (3 consecutive days at Mount Vernon) at 50 minutes per session were long !!

Sounds like he's in good hands.

Dave

Not "Why Me?" but "Why Not Me"?

User

Posted 25 Jun 2018 at 09:51

Hi Katrina

I'm at an earlier stage than your husband but have queried having HT alongside Cyberknife. The answer was basically that any cancer spread will eventually become independent of hormones so delaying this and just using Cyberknife is seen as a delaying tactic.

Obviously it is some time since you posted your comments - so you may now have a clearer picture of the prognosis.

I have only just had Cyberknife on single lymph node after having originally HDR monotherapy - but wondered about the likelihood of other cancer cells around the body.

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