Prostate Cancer Blog – Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer

This just in from the UF Proton Therapy Institute – I’ve coped their table below. As they state:

“Part of the decision-making process is to learn each treatment’s potential for cure (disease control) and for maintaining a good quality of life after treatment. The following table shows the most current prostate cancer patient outcomes data available for both proton therapy and surgery.”

Thanks to my old flight instructor “Doc” Harkins for passing this along…….

*Disease control is defined as freedom from clinical or PSA progression at five years.

**1% per Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v4.0; 5.3% per CTCAE v3.0

1.Mendenhall, NP et al. Five-Year Outcomes from 3 Prospective Trials of Image-Guided Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer. Int J Radiation Oncol Biol Phys 2014 March; 88(3):596-602.

2.Han, M et al. Long-Term Biochemical Disease-Free and Cancer-Specific Survival Following Anatomic Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy: The 15-Year Johns Hopkins Experience. Urol Clin North Am 2001 Aug; 28(3):555-65.

3.Qi, P et al. Long-Term Oncological Outcomes of Men Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy With Preoperative Prostate-Specific Antigen <2.5 ng/ml and 2.5-4 ng/ml. Urol Oncol 2013 Nov; 31(8):1527-32.

4.Treatment Option Overview for Prostate Cancer, Health Professional Version. Retrieved Aug. 28, 2013.

5.Bishoff JT et al. Incidence of fecal and urinary incontinence following radical perineal and retropubic prostatectomy in a national population. J Urol 160 (2): 454-8, 1998.

3.7.14 Reviewed by Nancy P. Mendenhall, M.D.

MARCH 2014 is here and there is a lot said in the latest “Bob Tales”. (LINK HERE)

How lucky we are to have a smart, dedicated man in Bob Marckini who is always up to date on the status of protons. Bob has developed a complete program with the support of the Loma Linda team and we are all benefitting from his hard work.

Deb Hickey is right there keeping the show on the road and we winners in the Prostate Cure race are exceedingly happy with the results. Results count and given that, we already accept the impact of what has really been the impacts using “Protons”, vis a vis the crowd of “Naysayers”.

I have full faith in the use of Protons and our input broadens each time a new person reports “Proton” success. Here I am about to reach 85 and have no Prostate issues.

My personal burden has been lifted thanks to Jay Rolls, a close relation, who knows how to write English and manage much of the Technical side of “Charter” in Denver. He administers this site for me.

If you can call me between 8:30am and 5:30pm, I should be here to talk.

Looking for happy results!

Jim Tuggey, Colonel, USA Army retired

Here’s an interesting article about a prostate cancer patient and how he dealt with his treatment options within the UK. Link to article is HERE. Without any options to obtain proton treatment inside his own country, he turned to a treatment center on the European continent – over in Prague, Czech Republic.

Jim Tuggey here on February 28th 2014. When you look at the spread of Proton facilities in our country and recognize the growing company of other Proton Centers that exist in other countries, it really weakens the case for the “Naysayers”. I have no cancer in my “prostate” and can round up quite a list of men who have had the same success with the “Proton”. That does not even take into account the other successes using Protons that are not Prostate issues but a much wider scope of challenges that have been met for men and women! My colleagues and I delight in the fact that Loma Linda met the challenge when so many expressed doubt. I think I counted nineteen Proton centers in our country  and more to come.