What to Expect After Radiation Treatment For Prostate Cancer? Using a linear accelerator, the therapy lasts less than an hour, targeting the prostate from various angles. Post-treatment, you might experience rectal irritation, resulting in diarrhea or bloody stools, and challenges in urination. Thankfully, these symptoms often ease over time. Don’t forget to explore Prostate nutrition to support recovery and overall well-being.
Immediate Side Effects
Radiation therapy for prostate cancer is typically the first line of defense against early stage (low grade) tumours that do not pose a high risk of spread, although hormone therapy might also help reduce PSA levels in men whose cancer has already spread.
Radiation therapy directed towards the prostate may result in side effects including bowel and urinary symptoms such as loose, watery stools (diarrhoea), frequent urine production or having to pass it more often than before radiotherapy treatment has begun. Men usually manage these side effects well and they usually disappear once treatment has concluded.
Fatigue can also be an ongoing side effect of treatment and should be given adequate rest when necessary and through finding other sources of energy to energize yourself. It’s essential that rest is taken when needed and that strategies for increasing energy are sought out to keep up with therapy regimens.
Newer radiation machines feature Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT), which enables therapeutic radiographers to take images of your prostate before each radiation therapy session and make small adjustments so as to target only healthy tissues and limit radiation dosage as much as possible.
There are other internal radiation treatments for prostate cancer, including brachytherapy and permanent seed implants. With brachytherapy, doctors place small radioactive pellets (called seeds ) the size of grains of rice directly into your prostate using imaging tests and computer programs to pinpoint where you need it and calculate how much radiation dose to deliver.
As part of your brachytherapy treatment, seeds will release low doses of radiation that will destroy cancerous cells. While this may result in an unexpected temporary increase in PSA level (known as PSA bounce), this won’t impede how effectively the therapy works. High-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR), an advanced form of brachytherapy delivered more powerful doses more rapidly over a shorter timeframe using hollow needles inserted in your perineum and soft nylon tubes called catheters to administer radioactive iridium or cesium radioactively to treat your prostate multiple times over two days.
Long-Term Side Effects
Radiation damages prostate-area cells, but they typically recover and the side effects usually dissipate within days or weeks. Since radiotherapy is highly targeted, it does not harm other areas of the body unless cancer has spread elsewhere, for example to lymph nodes or bones around pelvis region. If cancer has reached these parts, additional radiotherapy treatment might be required there as well.
At each radiation session, you will meet with a medical oncologist, who will carefully oversee your overall health and well-being. In some cases, a nurse specializing in cancer care – known as chemotherapy or medicinal oncology nurse – may also assist you in providing care.
External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) may be prescribed in order to cure prostate cancer or alleviate its symptoms, such as weak urine flow or discomfort when peeing. Treatment sessions at the hospital usually last five days per week for several weeks and only last a few minutes per session; before each CT scan of the area being treated is completed and three pinprick sized marks will be marked onto your skin by your therapeutic radiographer to help position you precisely the same way for each session.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), another variant of EBRT, uses advanced image-guided techniques to deliver high doses of radiation directly to specific parts of your body in just a few sessions.
If your cancer has spread to lymph nodes or bones, brachytherapy could provide a higher dose of radiation in just one session. Doctors may also offer temporary brachytherapy that delivers four quick treatments within two days to deliver this dose quickly and efficiently.
Aftercare
Your radiotherapy treatment will be provided by several health professionals, including a clinical oncologist and therapeutic radiographer who has advanced training in prostate radiotherapy. They will answer any queries that arise and can also arrange for planning sessions at hospital radiotherapy departments before, after, and between radiation treatments.
External beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer is one of the most popular forms of radiotherapy treatments, where a computer uses scans of both your body and surrounding area to calculate an exact dose of radiation that will kill any tumors present. It may be used as an effective standalone treatment or alongside hormone therapy or surgery as additional forms of cancer treatment.
Your doctor may suggest brachytherapy as another form of prostate cancer radiotherapy, in which doctors insert small radioactive pellets (often called seeds) directly into your prostate to deliver high doses of radiation in an extremely targeted fashion. Brachytherapy may be done alone or combined with external beam radiotherapy.
Radiation may carry the risk of damaging bones near your prostate and leading to hip or bone issues in later life, especially if combined with hormone therapy at the same time. Although unlikely, any issues would take at least five to ten years for any issues to manifest themselves.
Some men may experience side effects from radiation therapy that include bowel, urinary and erection dysfunction; however, these usually subside over time. If any concerns or blood in your urine arises after exposure to radiation therapy treatments, seek advice from your GP immediately as this could indicate infection.
As part of your follow-up care for radiation treatment, regular check-up appointments or “follow-ups” with your physician are important to monitor symptoms and see whether the therapy is working as intended. These appointments enable them to evaluate the outcome of treatment in terms of symptoms experienced and success rates.
