SABR Side Effects

User

Posted 26 Apr 2026 at 08:38

Hi All,

Newbie to this and thought I posted this question yesterday.

Have joint the club nobody wants to be in....

Diagnosed in January and given three options, active surveillance, prostatectomy or radiotherapy.

Not suitable for focal therapy after various consultations.

SABR is being recommended and was wanting to find peoples experiences please of this over the 5 day treatment and the side effects as i am being given different risk factors by the oncologist.

Thanks in advance

User

Posted 26 Apr 2026 at 11:04

Hi, Gee.

Im sorry that youve had to join oir club, but welcome to the forum, mate.

I'm a regular on here and have found it surprising, despite it being a relatively new treatment, how little feedback we've had on SABR five day treatment. It sounds a great innovation to me.

Here's a decent video comparing all treatment options and possible side effects.

https://youtu.be/zYTU94-8pTc?si=xW83bOb0AVFQFD2l

Good luck with whatever you chose.👍

User

Posted 27 Apr 2026 at 20:00

No I didn’t have either of those and they were never mentioned to me.

I would say that my flow wasn’t too great before the treatment. But the main concern for my consultant was bladder control due to the length of time spent laying still for each session.

User

Posted 28 Apr 2026 at 13:42

After the success of the PACE-B trial a couple of years ago, in one of my local support groups we've had 3 people do the 5-session SABR treatment, which is often offered to same patients as seed brachytherapy which they were all offered too, but all chose SABR.

The reported side effects are similar to but less than the regular 20-session radiotherapy. The 5 sessions are either done every weekday for a week split over a weekend, or every alternate weekday over 2 weeks (depends on the hospital).

One of the things about radiotherapy is the side effects lag about 2 weeks behind the treatment, so these short treatment regimes tend to mean the side effects happen after the treatment, rather than during the treatment. At least with these 3 patients, the side effects were at the lower end of what I tend to see with the regular 20-session radiotherapy. These would be urgency mainly, and some change to bowel behaviour. Side effects peak a a couple of weeks after treatment and then tend to subside.

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User

Posted 26 Apr 2026 at 11:04

Hi, Gee.

Im sorry that youve had to join oir club, but welcome to the forum, mate.

I'm a regular on here and have found it surprising, despite it being a relatively new treatment, how little feedback we've had on SABR five day treatment. It sounds a great innovation to me.

Here's a decent video comparing all treatment options and possible side effects.

https://youtu.be/zYTU94-8pTc?si=xW83bOb0AVFQFD2l

Good luck with whatever you chose.👍

User

Posted 27 Apr 2026 at 15:59

Hi Gee,

I'm sorry to hear that you've joined the club

I was diagnosed last year and all options were on the table for me.

I took a few months to research them and decided that I wanted to act now and chose SABR, 5 day treatment (over 10 days) on an MR-Linac machine.

I completed the treatment 8 weeks ago. I found the treatment challenging as I'm not keen on confined spaces and you can be in the machine for up to an hour depending on how much mapping they need to do. You also need a pretty full bladder which can get a bit uncomfortable.

The immediate side effects were: it was very painful to pass urine and the flow was very weak, which made it even more painful. I was given Tamsulosin and that cleared it all up pretty much the next day. Apart from an occasional bit of fatigue and still taking the Tamsulsoin, I have no side effects.

I've had my six week review with the consultant and the procedure all went to plan, I'm now weening myself off the tablets and I'm due to take a PSA test next week.

I'm really pleased that I chose this option but I would advise taking your time, research all the options and decide what's best for you.

If you have any other questions fire away

Thanks

Paul

User

Posted 27 Apr 2026 at 18:53

Hi thanks of the reply.

Did they perform a urine flow test and check for emptying of the bladder with ultra sound prior to treatment. I have to have these undertaken before they will undertake either SABR or Brachy.

Have been told that if not at acceptable level then treatment is not an option. This is concerning as I don't think I have a limited flow but that is subjective really.

If not suitable then it pushes me towards removal which i am not favouring to be honest

User

Posted 27 Apr 2026 at 20:00

No I didn’t have either of those and they were never mentioned to me.

I would say that my flow wasn’t too great before the treatment. But the main concern for my consultant was bladder control due to the length of time spent laying still for each session.

User

Posted 28 Apr 2026 at 13:42

User

Posted 30 Apr 2026 at 08:00

I am undergoing SABR at the moment for mets to the sternum and hip. After Mondays session, about two hours later, I felt like I had had maybe half a glass of wine too much other than that no problems. The same thing yesterday after my second treatment, this morning however I feel like I have spent the whole night in the gym.God only knows what I will be like after a Fridays session. I am only having three fractions to each site, If you have the same reaction as me with five factions I would lan on spending a couple of weeks on the sofa, and that is if you can get out of bed. Good luck with the treatment.

User

Posted 30 Apr 2026 at 09:08

If I may ask why do youbnot do active surveillance. You say its an option.

User

Posted 02 May 2026 at 16:30

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member

If I may ask why do youbnot do active surveillance. You say its an option.

Hi I must admit Its a consideration, but the urologist and nurse reckon just putting off inevitable and if delay too long that hormone therapy will be needed and additional side effects would be had.

They can't give a ball park figure of how long I could do it for and not sure I can just sit and wait......

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