Side effects of radiation for prostate cancer

[Sunnyvango]

Radiation for prostate cancer: has anyone had serious side effects including burns/rawness of skin, incontinence, or other bowel or urinary problems? At 89 impotence is not an issue.

[spm58]

I had incontinence but not bad. I’ve had it since my surgery 2 years ago and got a little worse after radiation but exercise helps a lot. Felt great but slightly more fatigued. Overall felt great!

[softwaremom00]

My Dad had incontinence.. it was pretty bad. He also had a lot of fatigue. He did end up with a cancer from the radiation 5 years later. It was a sarcoma. I do not think this is typical.

Hugs and prayers!

Softwaremom

[Tall_Allen]

Burns/rawness of skin is not an issue at all for prostate radiation - that only happens when tumors are near the skin, as with breast cancer. Incontinence is rarely an issue, but if there is any existing incontinence it will probably get worse. It takes longer for tissues to recover in older men. Here's a list of known side effects.

pcnrv.blogspot.com/2016/08/...

[Magnus1964]

I had some bowel irritation. That is pretty common.

[Sunnyvango in reply to Magnus1964]

Does it continue after rt ends or does it go away?

[Hidden in reply to Sunnyvango]

In 8th week here. I lost a lot of pubic hair. I take imodium with simethicone and eat the no fat, no fried, no fiber diet and it’s fine. Pee sitting down for a while. Never trust a fart. And if you feel you gotta poop soon, like in the next 5 or 10 minutes it means you have about 60 seconds to find the bog. With the right understanding, that’s a blessing not a curse. All this should go away within a month or so, maybe less.

[Magnus1964 in reply to Sunnyvango]

Bowel irritation may continue for a few months after radiation. It takes that long for the radiation to to stop working.

[Brundo]

My father had most of those issues and most of them resolved abouth a month after he was done. It's been around three months and the only issues that he has from time to time are frequent urination at night and loose stools. As for skin issues, I purchased a cream for him from Amazon and it worked great. It's called Jeans Cream and its mainly used for radiothetapy related skin problems. I hope you feel better soon!

[DaughterOnAMission]

My dad is having severe diarrhea and is incapable of holding pee. Very bad.

[charlesmeyers1964]

NONE

charlie

[Jimbo59]

3 1/2 years after post RP RT some minor rectal bleeding and following an intermittent self catheter program to control a urethral stricture. 10 day period. ED still an issue for me but Invicorp works well.....

[Je1234]

My father had his entire layer of skin peel off on his buttocks due to spine radiation. He acquired sepsis from this.

[Hidden in reply to Je1234]

That’s horrible ..

[Break60]

Yes I had bad scarring and bleeding of rectum after SRT but no problems with subsequent tx of mets elsewhere. After colonoscopy to check source of bleeding I had radio frequently ablation to heal my butt and it’s no longer a problem but it took a couple years to heal. Scary seeing red water in the toilet!

[Vitaminlover]

Yes, my husband developed colitis and was hospitalized for severe dehydration and hypotension. But the good news is that it resolved quickly and there have been no further colitis problems.

[Ben2]

one year after treatment I had rectal bleeding for two years (now stopped); periodic loose stools.

[Jimhoy]

40 ERT’s Sept 2017 to Nov 2017. The only SE is that whenever I pass gass, it’s in a bubble!! I picture a snot bubble back there!!!

Stop laughing.....I’m serious!!!!!

Never happened in the 63 years before, now it’s a constant!!!! OnclogIst says he can refer me to (?) to get it checked, but it’s the least of my worries!!! Thats why they invented underwear!!!!

Jc

[monte1111 in reply to Jimhoy]

How can I not stop laughing. A fart bubble. Oncologist can refer you to almost anyone on this site. Most of us have been there, done that. Can't remember how many bags of underwear I've been through in last 2 years. Hang in there. Enjoy.

[j-o-h-n in reply to Jimhoy]

youtube.com/watch?v=H6SXi4I...(Not working as expected?)

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Thursday 03/07/2019 5:31 PM EST

[Jimhoy in reply to j-o-h-n]

They fade, die and stink!!!

[Hidden in reply to Jimhoy]

A bit of the bubbles.

[RonL]

During the treatment period I experienced extreme fatigue but no lasting side effects.

[MJCA]

Hi,

Grant it I had radiation 13 years ago. Hopefully it has changed. I had fatigue, exterior skin burns and my urethra got burned. That hurt like a sum o bitch. I was catharized a few times as well. I was 46 at the time.

[zenbee13]

Hey Sunnyvango,

I had 13 weeks of RT, and was fatigued for the better part of 2 years. Also for about 6 months I sloughing off semi bloody tissue during bowel movements. One funny part of it was that to this day a solid movement is flat on one side. Not sure if that is from the RT, or what. Still find it amusing to see it in the pot.

[monte1111 in reply to zenbee13]

Oh joy, oh joy. I'll take a one sided flat solid movement any day of the week.

[Don_1213]

My side-effects from 45 IG/IMRT treatments were minimal. These were done as a primary treatment, not as a salvage treatment from another therapy. There were 25 treatments to the prostate bed area and prostate, then 20 "boost" treatments to the prostate only.

I finished these this Tuesday (March 5th). My radiation oncologist had promised me low side effects before the treatments started - he was confident about that due to the precision their new Varian machine (Edge) gives them in targetting what they want to zap and avoiding what they want to avoid. The radiation is given on the Edge while the head circles around the body and target area ("Rapid-Arc"), turning the beam on and off to avoid organs that shouldn't get zapped. It's claimed to bring the side-effects and secondary radiation exposure down to close to Proton levels.. at a much lesser cost.

Fatigue only became an issue the last 2 weeks toward the end of each week. At the same time, I had minor bowel issues (looseness) usually on Friday night. Immodium stopped that immediately. I had some minor mucus bowel problem (sort of a shart of mucus when I pee'd) for the last week of treatments, but 3 days after treatments ended - that's no longer an issue. I can fart without worry.

I have had a bit of urinary urgency and irritation - made worse by caffeine.. coffee or iced tea. I had a bit too much of both yesterday - so I'm heading back to my caffeine free diet that I used while I was undergoing treatment. It was my urologist who originally suggested kicking the caffeine habit when I had some urinary discomfort.

Last night I was up 4 times - usually I'm only up 1 time and sometimes not at all. I blame last night on the coffee and iced tea.

On a scale of 1-10 for difficulty of the side-effects, probably a 2.. and they're rapidly clearing up.

[j-o-h-n]

I had None.... after 39 sessions at MSKcc by Dr. Zelefsky.....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Thursday 03/07/2019 5:46 PM EST

[Hidden]

Fatigue can present itself and last ..

[nad95]

My dad got radiation cystitis after 2 years of 44 IMRT and incontinence, radiation cystitis is a serious issue though

Urine retention is quite common for him now

He's 64 fit but a bit tired

[biegelboy]

Currently at the end of my radiation treatments (5 remaining out of 45 total). I have bowel irritation, fatigue, dehydration and incontinence but not bad. I've coupled my radiation treatments with hormone treatments too, which may play a factor with the fatigue.