Prostate Proton Therapy
When the average man thinks of prostate cancer, the thought comes with predictions of pain, and a treatment regimen that has side effects that some men consider to be worse than death itself – but that doesn’t need to be the case, thanks to a relatively new treatment method called Prostate Proton Therapy. Prostate cancer treatments from chemotherapy, through radiation therapy to a prostectomy have significant side effects and they aren’t even certain to work. That’s where Prostate Proton Therapy comes to the rescue.
The side effects most commonly complained of are impotence – the inability of a man to sustain an erection or achieve orgasm – and incontinence, the inability of a man to control his urinary sphincter (and thus his choice of when to urinate.) Both of these issues clearly have profound impacts on a man’s psychological well-being.
You can easily end up with rectal wall damage, impotence, incontinence, and other major physical and morale-affecting issues as a result of any invasive method of dealing with prostate cancer. Prostate Proton Therapy – also known as Proton Beam Therapy for Prostate Cancer – uses a non-invasive external (i.e. no technology up your rear end) source of radiation that is safer than X-rays in that the radiation damage is very well-contained.
Proton beams come to an abrupt and controllable end, and don’t scatter as much as x-rays, which means that the tissue between the proton gun and the tumor receives some radiation damage, but the tissue next to and beyond the tumor does not. It might not sound like much on paper, but the difference in terms of the severity of the side effects is enormous. Quality-of-life issues are dramatically reduced for patients of prostate proton therapy versus radiation therapy – though there are still some rare patients who complain of impotence afterwards.
Proton beams are also capable of being more precisely aimed, which means that in addition to less auxiliary tissue damage, the tumor receives more of the radiation than it normally would with an x-ray. In theory, this makes the treatment more effective, though contrary to this, the Prostate Proton Therapy does run on an 8 week course (five days per week) – two to three weeks longer than traditional x-ray therapy. Nonetheless, patients who have tried both say that the Prostate Proton Therapy is less of a hindrance to their lifestyles than traditional radiation therapy.
Although prostate proton therapy is relatively expensive, often costing 2.5 times to 4 times more than radiation therapy, most medical insurers (including Medicare) cover the procedure.
People who have had their prostate cancer diagnosed in its early stages should be particularly alert to the option of prostate proton therapy. Because radiation therapy doesn’t offer the kind of focused beam that proton therapy does, small early-stage cancers are particularly bad targets for radiation therapy. Prostate proton therapy, on the other hand, is perfect for these tiny targets.
Prostate proton therapy‘s price tag might make it inappropriate for the uninsured, and the minimal risk of side effects like impotence and some tissue damage is still present – but the advantages of this selective technique so far outstrip the risks of chemotherapy and traditional radiation therapy that if you have insurance or Medicare, the choice is obvious.