If only we had a crystal ball or our doctors could predict the future, we may be able to know the exact long-term side effects prostate cancer patients may have.
But in lieu of the crystal ball or the power of being clairvoyant, there are no guarantees what long-term effects a patient may have from any prostate cancer treatment, including surgery, hormone therapy, cryotherapy, or radiation therapy.
At the CyberKnife Center of Miami, South Florida’s state-of-the-art radiation treatment center, our prostate cancer experts want you to understand the potential long-term complications of radiation therapy for prostate cancer and allow you to make treatment choices that are right for you.
According to Cancer Research UK, most side effects from radiation for prostate cancer go away in the weeks or the months after treatment, but long-term side effects can persist.
Side Effects from Radiation for Prostate Cancer
Those side effects include problems passing urine or leaking urine.
“Almost 50 out of every 100 men (almost 50%) who have radical radiotherapy have some problem with leaking urine after 6 years,” according to Cancer Research UK.
Another side effect can be impotence. If this happens, tell your doctor and seek treatment like medication to help with erectile dysfunction.
Prostate cancer patients might also experience issues with their bowels or swelling of the legs or scrotum. The swelling is what’s called lymphedema. It happens when the lymph channels that drain fluid from the legs are damaged by the radiation.
Radiation can also lead to problems with your bones because the radiation can make the bones weaker. It can also lead to a vitamin B12 deficiency, which can cause anemia.
Finally, a small number of patients develop a second cancer years after the original prostate cancer treatment. According to the National Library of Medicine, one in 70 patients undergoing radiation and surviving more than 10 years after the prostate cancer diagnosis develop a second cancer. The most common sites are the bladder or the rectum.
CyberKnife Benefits for Prostate Cancer
Keep in mind, there are several types of radiation for prostate cancer. Among the most effective is CyberKnife.
CyberKnife uses a technology called Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy or SBRT that’s different from traditional radiation treatments because CyberKnife continuously tracks the tumor in real-time so your treatment team can give the maximum dose of radiation directly to the cancer while minimizing radiation to the surrounding healthy tissue and nearby organs.
While there is no guarantee there won’t be any long-term issues, Accuray, the maker of CyberKnife, reports that the long-term effects of CyberKnife are no worse side effects than with traditional radiation.
And in many cases, CyberKnife’s precision can significantly reduce the risk of sexual, urinary and bowel function side effects.
A study of 2,100 men published in the journal JAMA Network Open in 2019 found: “Stereotactic body radiotherapy for low-risk and intermediate-risk disease was associated with low rates of severe toxic events and high rates of biochemical control. These data suggest that stereotactic body radiotherapy is an appropriate definitive treatment modality for low-risk and intermediate-risk prostate cancer.”
CyberKnife benefits over traditional radiation include:
- Excellent long-term cancer control.
- A non-surgical and non-invasive treatment.
- Fewer treatments over a shorter time frame.
- Lower incidence of sexual, urinary and bowel function side effects.
- Patients continue normal activities during treatment.
Plus, the twelve-year disease-free survival rates for treatment of prostate cancer with CyberKnife are 97%-100% for low-risk patients. That’s superior to the 92%-94% with conventional radiation. The disease-free survival rates for intermediate-risk patients using CyberKnife is equal to or higher than conventional radiation.
At 10 years following treatment with CyberKnife, the disease-free rates were 93% for low-risk patients, which is better than the 81%-85% with conventional radiation.
Prostate Cancer Treatment in Miami
“If your doctor tells you, CyberKnife is not for you, go to a CyberKnife center and get a second opinion. Maybe it’s not the best treatment for you, but most of the time it is. CyberKnife is the most effective, safest, and quickest way to treat prostate cancer so you can put it behind you and get on with your life,” Dr. Mark Pomper board-certified radiation oncologist and medical director of CyberKnife Miami advises.
CyberKnife Miami is the region’s expert in SBRT. CyberKnife Miami has treated thousands of prostate cancer patients in the Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties with excellent results.
If you would like to find out more about prostate cancer treatment with CyberKnife, call us at 305-279-2900 or go to our prostate cancer website now.