Prostate Cancer Blog – Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer

Your first choice for Prostate cancer treatment will be a lifetime commitment!

My personal choice of PROTON THERAPY at the leading edge facility, Loma Linda Proton has been the right choice for me.

I visited my Oncologist at Loma Linda on May 23rd and we concluded that I was cancer free and not likely to experience a relapse. My PSA on the 23rd was 0.1 and I have no side effects with my seven year anniversary coming on August 27th 2006. Those are great numbers when you start with a PSA of 15.9.

Jim Tuggey

ABC had a program on Prostate Cancer last month (February 2006) and missed the mark on thorough research when they failed to mention “Proton Therapy”. The question is, “How can you continue to ignore “Protons” when there are multi-million dollar Proton facilities about to open in the USA and more worldwide?

A recent comment from a Urologist in March 2006 to a patient with Prostate cancer shows how mis-informed some in the Urologist choose to be when he said, “proton treatment is no different than x-ray in outcome, does not kill the prostate” and another Urologist who said “It’s Quackery”.

As a matter of fact if you wish to continue you current life style and based on my experience you don’t “Kill the Prostate” you kill the CANCER in the Prostate!

These “professionals are short on knowledge” and need to get up to speed, here are a few questions they should be able to answer,
Why has M.D. Anderson’s prestigious Cancer Center built a Proton Treatment Facility at a substantial price over $100 million to treat the Prostate and many other cancers and benign tumors?

Why is University of Florida Shands Proton Treatment facility (at a similar price) about to open in Jacksonville, Florida?
Why are the Midwest Radiotherapy Center in Bloomington, Indiana, and Mass. General Hospital in cooperation with Harvard University in Boston and Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, CA., treating Prostates with protons?

How did Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia persuade the state and its trustees to allot $189 Million to build a Proton Treatment center there, with the primary focus on treating Prostate Cancer.

Why did the Rinecker Proton Center (RPTC) just open in Munich, Germany? And why in the world would we have protons in use at the following addresses if these Urologists are correct?

• Wanjie Proton Therapy Center, Zibo, China.
• TRIUMF Proton Therapy Facility in Canada, I quote from their web site:

“The Proton Treatment Facility at TRIUMF is dedicated to treating a cancerous growth on the back of the eye, called choroidal melanomas. Before proton treatment became available, the most common course of action was removal of the eye. Other possible treatments included surgical removal of the tumour (which has severe limitations), or implanting a radioactive disk on the wall of the eye under the tumour for some days. These alternatives were unsuitable for large tumours, and could damage sensitive parts of the eye, often resulting in loss of vision. After proton therapy, however, patients can retain useful vision. The protons enter the eye at a carefully controlled energy, and come to rest at a precise, predictable distance inside. They deposit their energy of motion (kinetic energy) in a very narrow layer, destroying living cells in that layer. Because the beam of protons is so concentrated and deposits its energy so predictably, we can successfully destroy a tumour while better preserving the other nearby parts of the eye.”

THIS IS WHAT THE PROTON DOES FOR THE PROSTATE AND MANY OTHER CANCERS.

• Centre de Protontherapie, Orsay, France and Nice, France – Old info but here’s what they say:

“From the French Website CEDIT in 2002 “State of Use: there are about twenty centers for proton therapy and Hadron therapy with heavy ions in the world, most of which offer only proton therapy. Two of these are located in France: in Orsay and Nice. Most centers divide their activity between fundamental research and clinical practice, but seven centers offer purely medical services. About twenty new centers are planned, most of them for proton therapy. “

Many of the websites contain old information as above (2002) and that is why it is essential that you get a second opinion in 2006 from a Proton Radiation Oncologist, at a facility that is on the leading edge of proton treatment. As of today, March 15, 2006 Loma Linda is the leader in Proton treatment for the Prostate. Thanks for asking – Jim Tuggey

NO MEDICAL ADVICE: Material appearing here represents opinions offered by non-medically-trained laypersons. Comments shown here should NEVER be interpreted as specific medical advice and must be used only as background information when consulting with a qualified medical professional.

2006, the year when two NEW Proton centers in the USA come on line, one at MD Anderson in Houston and one at Shands Cancer center in Jacksonville, Florida.

In over six years from 1999 to today, I have spoken with or read comments from over 3,000 men who had completed Proton treatment at Loma Lindas Proton Center in California or were undergoing Proton treatment at the time we talked. Many of these men were at Loma Linda for salvage treatment using Protons after failure of other methods of treatment and some had PSA score over 50.

Many of these men were disapointed by the lack of support for their decision to go for Protons by their personal doctors, while others had doctors who suggested surgery or radiation close to home, yet supported the patient’s decision to go to Loma Linda.

Now with over 7,000 men who have completed Proton treatment at Loma Linda (LLUMC), the team at LLUMC leads the way in treating the prostate with protons.

With protons in use at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hosp (Harvard) and the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, Indiana and wonderful new Proton centers opening in 2006, the awareness of the value of Protons and their low side effects will rise quickly.

It is a great future ahead for treatment and cure of many cancers and serious benign conditions using the unique characteristics of the non-invasive Proton.

Within the last 60 days a prominent news magazine featured “Robotic Surgery for Prostate Cancer”. Since I have had at least five surgeries in my life and didn’t like any of them, it seems to me that surgery, be it Robotic or by any means involves invasive cutting of the flesh to excise, repair, and hopefully return the patient to a full recovery.

Unfortunately, any surgery in the difficult prostate gland area seems often fraught with disappointment.

So, it seems to be a “no-brainer” to select the Proton Treatment option when results are equal to or better than any surgical approach or for that matter any other “radiation” approach with (in my personal experience six and one-half years ago), a substantially better quality of life.

So get a second opinion from Loma Linda’s leading edge experts (Proton Referral Office: 1-800-496-4966) or the folks at the Northeast Proton Center (MGH / Harvard) Dr. Zietman, the Midwest Radio Therapy Center in Bloomington, and within two months the new Proton center at M.D. Anderson in Houston, Dr. James Cox. Very soon we will have Shands Cancer on-line in Jacksonville, Florida with the same Proton capability.

Jim Tuggey

“Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery” by Bradley Hennenfent, M.D. Copyright 2005 is an interesting book.

If you read it you could not possibly make a Radical Prostectomy decision. To quote the author who had five Uncles with Prostate Cancer (- 2 are dead – and the book is dedicated to all of them;) ” When and if I get localized Prostate cancer, I will avoid surgery like the plague.”

He does mention LLUMC and MGH but his Proton story is weak and I have already told him in a comment to his web site. He seems sold on “Brachytherapy” but has a lot of other suggestions and does not hold “Urologists” in general in very high esteem.

Essential reference – cites “Watchful waiting” specific studies and rates it 87 percent survival to 80 percent for surgery but says on page 93, “WATCHFUL WAITING DOES NOT MEAN DOING NOTHING!, scream this in the ear of every man you meet at prostate cancer support groups.”

Lots of Good information.

Jim Tuggey

On August 27th, 1999 I completed my Proton treatment for Prostate Cancer. I was treated at Loma Linda University’s Proton Treatment Center by wonderful people who are today the best I’ve ever met. Here six years later I do not have any side effects and thank Dr. John Griswell and Steve Zogg for pointing me in the right direction in early 1999.

The lack of any side effects has been most impressive and my PSA today at (less than) .1 has raised my expectations for no more trouble from my prostate. Thank you Dr. Carl Rossi and R.N. Sharon Hoyle for my care in your remarkable hands and the team from Gantry 3.

I am absolutely delighted to see M D Anderson coming on line in early 2006 with more power added to the Proton Therapy base. God bless you all.

Jim Tuggey
August 27, 2005

There is a fine article in the New York Times, August 2, 2005 written by Claudia Dreifus.
Dr. Ritsuko Komaki, Radiation Oncologist, and wife of Dr. James Cox who heads MD Anderson radiation facility, experienced Hiroshima and led to her interest in radiation. She tells about successes in radiation at M.D. Anderson and increased survival rates, and she speaks of the new Proton Center about to open, ” And next year, we have the proton beam therapy machine going at M.D. Anderson, and with it we can do even more precise and effective treatments. The protons hit only the diseased tissue and nothing else.”
Since I am about the complete my sixth year since treated for prostate cancer with protons at Loma Linda University Medical Center, CA. I can attest to that. Jim Tuggey, August 6, 2005

Very positive article on Proton therapy at MD Anderson in the June 27, 2005 Fortune Magazine. This is another important indicator pointing to the effectiveness of Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer and the spread of the facilities in the USA that can use Protons for Cancer treatment. I expect further word on Shands Cancer center in Jacksonville, Fl. soon as they are under construction. Quick advice, get a second opinion from Loma Linda’s proton experts, Midwest RadioTherapy Center in Bloomington Indiana, or the NorthEast Proton Center in Boston.

We’ve created this Blog to keep everyone updated on a continual stream of breaking news and events in the world of Proton Beam Therapy. I hope you find this content informative and useful. Jim