Radiation Dosage

[SherryKahn]

My husband is going tomorrow for simulation for radiation for IGMRT. We were informed by the nurse that the dosage would be 225 cGY fraction each for the 25 sessions for a total of 5625cGy. Sounds like a lot? Concerned about the side effects and what to expect. Reading other people’s dosages they seem to be in the 70-90 range. He already had HDR Brachytherapy. And has very high risk 4A prostate cancer with spread to a lymph node and seminal vessel so I get the rationale of being aggressive with the treatment. But then again this is all Greek to me. So any input appreciated. He never got tested through PROSTOX should he? Will it make a difference in terms of treatment? TIA.

[Justfor_]

I am Greek, so understanding Greek, (JOHN's style joke). Seriously now, this "c" is for centiGray or 1/100 of a Gray. Meaning that he will receive 56.25 Gy in total. Those that receive 60-75 Gy get them in 40 to 45 fractions. Your husband will receive less in total but more per fraction. Dosage equivalences are not linear. The higher the fractional dose the less the fractions.

[SherryKahn in reply to Justfor_]

Thank you so much! I am going to pretend to understand what you said but feeling reassured after reading this.

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

I must admit that sometimes Greek is all Greek to me......

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n

[Tall_Allen]

That's a very normal dose. Prostox is useless now.

[SherryKahn in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thanks for the reassurance.

[Sagewiz]

I also had HDR and 30 session of IGMRT. I am prone to trust the Radiologists on this. They know proper dosages based on tumor location, metastasis, biopsy result location, etc. aided by computer targeting and other high-tech medical stuff. My side effects mostly related to severe diarrhea at the end of the last two weeks.

Following treatment it was all about the exhaustion and hot flashes (also as a result of HRT). Symptoms improved significantly after about 3 months.

I also had a very aggressive diet and supplement program to deal with the cancer and the side-effects, and not sure exactly how uch that contributed, but the MO dropped me down to 500 mg of Abiterone over 6 months without negatively impacting my numbers, and the exhaustion and hot flashes became more manageable.

I am Gleason 4+3 and had 11 of 12 positive biopsies, with cellular metastasis.

[SherryKahn in reply to Sagewiz]

Thank you. What was your “aggressive diet?”

[Sagewiz]

It's complicated, but based on the cancer cookbook "One Bite and a Time". I also work with a naturopath on diet. Mostly vegetarian. Excludes eggs, sugar, alcohol, minimal dairy, and lots of more medicinal foods like lots of Asian mushroom varieties as often as possible. Vegetable juicing, No processed foods at all.

[SpencerBoy11]

I asked the RO to give me the max I could take. It was 28 sessions. A couple of things to consider. Get zapped to prevent moòbs (man breasts) May cost extra, but so will all the larger size shirts which still won't fit right. Next is very rare, it shouldn't be given much, if any weight, but radiation can cause myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a blood cancer. It happened to me. Prostate cancer has been undetectable. For the MDS a stem cell transplant works only 40% of the time( I'm too old). 40% chance that it will morph into Acute Myloid Leukemia. Knowing all I know now and able to go back in time, I would make the same choice. Now the SOC is different. Yes, it is confusing, one of Prostate Cancer's secret weapons.