My husband had RP three years ago and his PSA is slowly climbing it is at 0.09. We have a radiology appointment on Friday, how long is radiation treatment and will he need time off work?
HI FatCat56, and a warm welcome to the forum, so sorry to hear of your husbands recurrence, I am not a nurse, your husband will probably have salvage radiotherapy which is 1 to 4 treatments over 2 days though there are possible side effects to consider, bowel, bladder and ED, which not everyone gets and they are treatable and not permanent, PS, If your husband has no symptoms and as long as his PSA is below 0.5 it makes very little difference to outcomes to wait, though I would think like most of us you just want to get rid of it ASAP, as you didn't mention if you had radiotherapy after surgery, if you didn't, EBRT could be an option. my best wishes to you both
Thankyou for your warm welcome and reply. It sounds like quite a speedy process, he didn’t have radiotherapy after surgery. We have been referred now as his PSA is rising slowly and he is, as you suggested, keen to get rid of it ASAP. His PSA is currently below 0.5 at 0.09 so we will see what the radiologist says tomorrow. He is anxious about mussing work, but I think he will have to see how he feels afterwards. Hopefully, he will feel reassured…
I am sorry to hear about your husband's situation and appreciate you have some questions about him having further treatment involving radiotherapy.
Unfortunately without being directly involved in his care we can't say how many sessions of treatment he may need to have. There are different types of radiotherapy given for prostate cancer and it also depends on where the prostate cancer has returned to. Generally speaking for localised prostate cancer a total of 4 weeks ( 20 sessions) Monday- Friday is given, but some men may need up to 7 weeks of treatment.
We have a section of information calledtreatment if your prostate cancer has come backandexternal beam radiotherapyon our website you may find useful to read. This also includes possible side effects and how this may affect a person. Whilst the radiotherapy is usually given 5 days a week apart from the planning session that can take time, the actual radiotherapy treatment only takes a few minutes each day. Many patients are able to continue to work whilst having this type of treatment.
I hope the appointment goes well. Do encourage your husband to ask lots of questions about the exact type of treatment he will be having, it's possible side effects and if he can continue to work through the treatment.
Please get back to us if you need any more information or support. You may find it helpful to talk things through with one of the nurses on our helpline. The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.
