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| Shedding Light on Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer |
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What’s more, if you’ve just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, don’t take these findings about radiation treatment as gospel. Instead, combine them with your other exhaustive research—you are doing that, aren’t you?—and decide whether radiation, surgery or another treatment is best for you. Now that I have those caveats out of the way, check these out: √ Treating cancer with seeds Radiation seed implants—otherwise known as brachytherapy—are just as effective at curing prostate cancer in men 60 and younger as they are in older men, according to a study at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology convention in L.A. “These results suggest that brachytherapy is extremely effective in curing localized prostate cancer for men aged 60 and younger,” says Dr. Alice Ho, the study’s lead author and radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “When younger men are diagnosed with localized prostate cancer, they should be presented with all viable treatment options, including brachytherapy." The procedure involves a radiation oncologist placing about 150 or so small, highly radioactive seeds into the prostate to kill the cancer. In some cases, the patient also will undergo external-beam radiation; that is, radiation delivered by a machine outside the body. Are seeds getting a bad rap? Proponents say the seed option involves a much shorter recovery time than surgery and brachytherapy is as effective as surgery at getting rid of the cancer. However, researchers say, surgeons usually advise younger men to undergo surgery to remove the prostate as opposed to getting seed implants because patients can physically tolerate surgery. In addition, surgeons—usually urologists trained to do such procedures—believe going under the knife is more effective than brachytherapy at curing prostate cancer over the long haul. This means that many younger men would undergo surgery without ever learning about other treatment options, like brachytherapy or external beam radiation therapy, researchers said. I must interrupt here: that’s not entirely the surgeon’s fault. That’s also the fault of the patient. Once a man is told “You have prostate cancer,” his responsibility becomes doing as much research as possible on the many treatment options, which includes surgery, external radiation, the seeds, freezing the gland and “watchful waiting,” and their risks and side effects. But I digress. √ Cholesterol drugs and prostate cancer In another study, prostate-cancer patients who receive high doses of treatment and also take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs enjoy a 10-percent higher chance of being cured of cancer 10 years after they were diagnosed, compared to men who didn’t take the medications. The benefits came especially in men who had more aggressive or advanced forms of prostate cancer. In addition, men who took statins during high-dose radiation had a lower rate of the cancer spreading to distant parts of the body, said Dr. Michael Zelefsky, another Sloan-Kettering radiation oncologist. “We were, indeed, surprised by the findings that statins used by these patients for other conditions were shown to improve the effectiveness of radiation treatment in killing prostate cancer cells,” he said. “The use of statins during radiation may also be effective in the treatment of other types of cancer.” However, he quickly added, more studies are necessary to explore the association between statins and radiation treatment. Statins include Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, Vytorin, among others. √ Radiation and Sex Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, targets the prostate tumor more precisely, which proponents say allows for higher doses and the curing of more cancers, without increasing rectal bleeding, cramps or diarrhea, or other side effects commonly associated with the treatment. “IMRT is revolutionizing how we treat men with prostate cancer because it improves our ability to avoid normal tissue,” said Dr. Mark Buyounouski, a physician in Fox Chase’s radiation oncology department. “As a result, more radiation dose can be delivered to the prostate by increasing the amount of radiation each day. Increasing the radiation used each day is particularly attractive because it also shortens the treatment time by several days. “We need to make sure there’s a balance between risk and benefit, and sexual function is a major consideration.” I chose surgery as my option. If you chose external radiation or the seeds, I'd like to hear your story. Go to the comment link and tell me all about it!
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Very interesting news coming out of an oncology radiation convention about treatment options for prostate cancer. Although I don’t mean to disparage their research, keep in mind that these folks make their living zapping people with radiation, just like urologists put food on their tables by slicing people open.
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