Conditions Treated With Proton Therapy
Proton therapy is considered the most technologically advanced radiation delivery method for cancerous tumors. With this powerful, precise technology, tumors are more accurately targeted so healthy tissues and organs get less unnecessary radiation.
Proton therapy is commonly used to treat tumors in sensitive areas where traditional X-ray or photon radiation may not be the best option. Depending on your particular diagnosis, proton therapy may be a treatment option for cancers of the brain and central nervous system, breast, esophagus, head and neck, liver, lung, lymphatic system, eyes, pancreas, prostate, bone and others. It is particularly beneficial for many pediatric cancers.
Treatment To Lower Androgen Levels From Other Parts Of The Body
LHRH agonists and antagonists can stop the testicles from making androgens, but cells in other parts of the body, such as the adrenal glands, and prostate cancer cells themselves, can still make male hormones, which can fuel cancer growth. Some drugs can block the formation of androgens made by these cells.
Abiraterone blocks an enzyme called CYP17, which helps stop these cells from making androgens.
Abiraterone can be used in men with advanced prostate cancer that is either:
- Castration-resistant
This drug is taken as pills every day. It doesnt stop the testicles from making testosterone, so men who havent had an orchiectomy need to continue treatment with an LHRH agonist or antagonist. Because abiraterone also lowers the level of some other hormones in the body, prednisone needs to be taken during treatment as well to avoid certain side effects.
Ketoconazole , first used for treating fungal infections, also blocks production of androgens made in the adrenal glands, much like abiraterone. It’s most often used to treat men just diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer who have a lot of cancer in the body, as it offers a quick way to lower testosterone levels. It can also be tried if other forms of hormone therapy are no longer working.
Ketoconazole also can block the production of cortisol, an important steroid hormone in the body, so men treated with this drug often need to take a corticosteroid .
Will Radiation Therapy Make Me Tired
Everyone has their own energy level, so radiation treatment will affect each person differently.
People often feel fatigue after several weeks of treatment. For most, this fatigue is mild. But some people lose a lot of energy and need to change their daily routine.
If your doctor thinks you should limit how active you are, theyâll discuss it with you.
To minimize fatigue while youâre receiving radiation treatment:
- Get enough rest.
- Pace yourself, and plan rest breaks throughout your day.
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What Is Radiation Therapy
Radiation is the strategic use of ionizing radiation or photons to kill cancer cells. It works by damaging the cancer cells DNA .The targeted cells die without growing or replicating themselves. Radiation therapy, like surgery, is very effective at killing localized or locally advanced prostate cancer and has the same cure rate as surgery.
Just as surgical skill can play an important role in determining outcomes from prostatectomy, the technical skill of your radiation oncologist can play an important role in radiation outcomes. When choosing a radiation oncologist, look for a physicians who has broad experience with an assortment of approaches and can objectively help you decide on the best course of treatment.
Turn To Our Expert Team For Care
The cancer center has assembled a powerhouse team of proton experts from around the country to ensure you receive top-of-the-line care. The team includes nationally and internationally renowned radiation oncologists, medical physicists and dosimetrists. Together, these specialists will design a treatment plan comprising the exact dose, beam angles and patient positioning required to deliver the precise proton dose to your tumor.
A proton therapy-dedicated nurse navigator will guide you through initial testing and appointments by gathering your medical records and imaging, answering questions and providing emotional support. The nurse navigator assists you from the moment of referral, remains with you until your treatment plan is established and then serves as an additional resource throughout your cancer journey.
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Surgery Vs Radiation For Prostate Cancer: Uses Benefits Side Effects
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer other than skin cancer in people who have a prostate . Depending upon the stage of the cancer, different treatment options are available. These treatment options include:
This article will review how surgery and radiation are used to treat prostate cancer. Both can be very effective forms of treatment in men with the disease. Although they may have the same goals of therapy, there are differences between these treatments.
Be sure to see your healthcare provider for the diagnosis, so you can receive the best treatment for you.
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Safety First How The Product Is Packaged For Transportation
Bayer designed a special container for transporting its radiopharmaceutical product. After all, it is important to be 100 percent certain that no radiation inadvertently escapes from a radioactive substance. From a transportation point of view, it is considered a hazardous material, and extremely strict safety requirements must be met during transportation, be it by road, by water, by rail or in the air.
Bayers targeted alpha therapy was licensed for market in May 2013. A year before, work had already begun on solving the packaging issue. Ocklenburg says the transportation container was optimized over several stages. The radioactive saline solution in the 10-milliliter vial is first contained in a lead box, which itself is surrounded by a polystyrene casing. A little cube with a lead container, Ocklenburg calls it, and its task is to ensure the medication gets safely from its place of manufacture to the patient.
Packaged ready for transportation, it is contained within a radiation-proof cube measuring approx. 20 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm. According to Ocklenburg, the goal is to make the cube even smaller and easier to handle. In doing so, however, there are safety regulations to consider there are minimum dimensions for hazardous goods containers. Safety first.
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Dealing With Prostate Cancer
Being diagnosed and living with prostate cancer can change how you feel about life. If you or your loved one is dealing with prostate cancer you may feel scared, stressed or even angry. There is no right way to feel and everyone reacts differently.
Read more about living with advanced prostate cancer, or speak to our Specialist Nurses. They are here to support you and your family.
You may also find it helpful to visit our wellbeing hub for information to help support you in looking after your emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. If you are close to someone with prostate cancer, find out more about how you can support someone with prostate cancer and where to get more information.
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What Is A Radiation Oncologist
If a patient is undergoing radiation, the cancer treatment plan may be managed by a radiation oncologist who carefully monitors the persons overall health and well-being through the process.
With advanced cancer, a patient may also be referred to a medical oncologist. This specialized doctor uses medicines such as chemotherapy and hormone therapy to treat cancers. Its common for several medical specialists to work together on a treatment plantheyre known as a cancer care team.
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Study Data And Findings
Investigators reviewed data from 143,886 men who were treated for localized prostate cancer at Veterans Affairs medical facilities between 2000 and 2015. The men ranged from 60 to 71 years in age, and came from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Among them, 52,886 were treated with radiation within a year of being diagnosed. The other 91,000 men opted either for surgery over a similar time frame, or chose to have their cancers monitored and treated only when or if routine exams showed signs of progression.
After a median follow-up of nine years, 3% of the radiation-treated men had developed secondary cancers, compared to 2.5% of the men who chose other options. The four most common cancers in the order of how frequently they were detected were bladder cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and rectal cancer. The risk of developing these secondary cancers increased steadily with time, peaking five to six years after radiation treatment was finished.
Dr. Oliver Sartor, an oncologist at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans who was not involved in the study, says the potential for secondary cancers is an important issue that men should discuss with their doctors when evaluating treatment options.
Radiation Therapy In Advanced Disease:
Some forms of radiation therapy, like external radiation therapy and radiopharmaceuticals, can help with advanced prostate cancer. One type of external radiation therapy is used along with hormone therapy to treat cancer that has spread outside the prostate to nearby tissue. In addition, radiopharmaceuticals are used to manage pain and symptoms of bone metastases. Scroll down to learn more about radiopharmaceuticals.
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Prices And Where To Get It
The cost of a radical prostatectomy varies depending on insurance status and location of surgery.
Costs may include hospital fees, anesthesia fees, and surgeon fees. The average cost of hospital fees for prostatectomy in the United States is about $34,000. Anesthesiologist and surgeon fees average about $8,000. What out-of-pocket expenses the person being treated incurs will depend on their insurance.
The location of the procedure can be with a local surgeon, or the person being treated may travel to see a regional or national expert.
Radiation Therapy For Penile Cancer
Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells. It can be used to treat penile cancer in these ways:
- It can be used to treat some smaller penile cancers instead of surgery.
- If the cancer has spread to many lymph nodes , radiation may be used after surgery to remove the lymph nodes to try to reduce the risk the cancer will come back.
- It can be used when surgery isn’t an option.
- Radiation can be used for advanced cancer to try to slow the growth of the cancer or to relieve symptoms it causes.
- Men at high risk of cancer coming back in nearby lymph nodes might get radiation to those nodes to help lower this risk.
There are 2 main ways to get radiation therapy for penile cancer: external beam and brachytherapy.
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What Types Of Radiotherapy Are There
There are two common types of external beam radiotherapy:
- intensity-modulated radiotherapy
- 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy .
You may also hear about image guided radiotherapy . This is part of all radiotherapy treatments. Taking images of the prostate before each treatment allows your radiographer to make small changes to the area that is going to be treated, in case the prostate has moved slightly since your last treatment session. This makes sure the surrounding healthy tissue gets as little radiation as possible. It also makes sure the whole prostate is treated.
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy
This is the most common type of external beam radiotherapy in the UK. A computer uses the scans from your radiotherapy planning session to map the location, size and shape of your prostate. The radiotherapy machine gives beams of radiation that match the shape of the prostate as closely as possible. This helps to avoid damaging the healthy tissue around it, reducing the risk of side effects.
The strength of the radiation can be controlled so that different areas get a different dose. This means a higher dose of radiation can be given to the prostate without causing too much damage to surrounding tissue.
3D conformal radiotherapy
As with IMRT, the radiation beams are mapped to the size, shape and position of the prostate. But the strength of the radiation cant be controlled in 3D-CRT, so all areas are treated with the same dose.
Other types of radiotherapy
Side Effects Of Ebrt For Prostate Cancer
Many of the possible side effects of radiation therapy for prostate cancer involve the bladder and bowelthe prostate is very close to both. Although the goal is to target only the prostate with radiation, sometimes small amounts may cause problems to nearby areas of the body.
Some of the potential side effects from EBRT include:
- Bowel problems, including diarrhea, leakage or rectal bleeding
- Urinary symptoms, such as a need to urinate more frequently, incontinence or a burning sensation during urination
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Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy
This technique uses advanced image guided techniques to deliver large doses of radiation to a precise area, such as the prostate. Because there are large doses of radiation in each dose, the entire course of treatment is given over just a few days.
SBRT is often known by the names of the machines that deliver the radiation, such as Gamma Knife, X-Knife, CyberKnife, and Clinac.
The main advantage of SBRT over IMRT is that the treatment takes less time . The side effects, though, are not better. In fact, some research has shown that some side effects might actually be worse with SBRT than with IMRT.
How Does Brachytherapy Work
Brachytherapy involves implanting small, permanent radioactive seeds or temporary needles into the cancerous prostate.
After you are identified as a good candidate for brachytherapy, an ultrasound is used to guide the placement of needles into the prostate. Depending on whether you and your doctor have chosen permanent/low-dose brachytherapy or temporary/high-dose brachytherapy, these needles are then used to either put in permanent seeds or temporary radiation sources.
Placement of seeds is a minimally invasive procedure and does not require incisions. Men undergoing the procedure can return to full activity in less than a week. This is done as an outpatient procedure before you begin treatment.
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What Are The Different Types Of Internal Radiation Therapy
Brachytherapy and radiopharmaceuticals are both considered internal radiation therapies because they both work after being inserted inside the body, rather than being directed from outside. However, the similarities mostly end there. Brachytherapy works by implanting radioactive material into the prostate and is used for localized prostate cancer. Radiopharmaceuticals are injected into the bloodstream and are used for advanced, metastatic prostate cancer. Read on to find the details of each.
How Prostate Cancer Is Treated
In cancer care, different types of doctorsincluding medical oncologists, surgeons, and radiation oncologistsoften work together to create an overall treatment plan that may combine different types of treatments to treat the cancer. This is called a multidisciplinary team. Cancer care teams include a variety of other health care professionals, such as palliative care experts, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, oncology nurses, social workers, pharmacists, counselors, dietitians, physical therapists, and others.
The common types of treatments used for prostate cancer are described below. Your care plan may also include treatment for symptoms and side effects, an important part of cancer care.
Treatment options and recommendations depend on several factors, including the type and stage of cancer, possible side effects, and the patients preferences and overall health.
Cancer treatment can affect older adults in different ways. More information on the specific effects of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy on older patients can be found another section of this website.
Because most prostate cancers are found in the early stages when they are growing slowly, you usually do not have to rush to make treatment decisions. During this time, it is important to talk with your doctor about the risks and benefits of all your treatment options and when treatment should begin. This discussion should also address the current state of the cancer:
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Side Effects Of Radiation Therapy
Compared to earlier radiation methods, these modern techniques reduce the chance of urinary and bowel problems.
With several treatment options available, your doctor will work with you to develop and oversee a treatment plan that precisely addresses your prostate cancer while minimizing the risk to surrounding tissues.
This is why it is important to choose an experienced radiation oncologist who specializes in the management of prostate cancer. High volume centers where practitioners have significant experience and treat large numbers of patients with prostate cancer may be associated with good outcomes and fewer lasting problems related to treatment. The majority of patients who undergo radiation do not have permanent effects on bowel or urinary function, and patients who develop erectile difficulty after these therapies can often be treated successfully with medications such as sildenafil or tadalafil.
Your Cancer Care Team
People with cancer should be cared for by a multidisciplinary team . This is a team of specialists who work together to provide the best care and treatment.
The team often consists of specialist cancer surgeons, oncologists , radiologists, pathologists, radiographers and specialist nurses.
Other members may include physiotherapists, dietitians and occupational therapists. You may also have access to clinical psychology support.
When deciding what treatment is best for you, your doctors will consider:
- the type and size of the cancer
- what grade it is
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Coping With The Side Effects
The side effects of both surgery and radiation can vary from mild to more severe and potentially significantly impact someones life.
The side effects of urinary and bowel problems can be distressing. There are ways to help manage these, such as with pelvic floor exercise, bladder training, and incontinence products. Other coping strategies include:
- Urinating every few hours
- Limiting caffeine intake
- Talking to your healthcare team about any medications or other interventions that may be helpful
Sexual dysfunction related to prostate cancer treatment can also be an unwelcome side effect. Helpful ways to cope with this can include:
- Having open communication with your partner
- Prioritizing activities for the day and taking breaks as needed