The results showed that men who were treated with proton therapy for prostate cancer had the same urinary and rectal quality of life scores as men who didn't even have prostate cancer.
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FOR PROTON TREATMENT
Fatigue is minimal or non-existent. (I treated an avid cyclist a few years back who rode his bicycle over a thousand miles during the nine weeks he was receiving treatment).
Rectal symptoms are almost unheard of (since such a small volume of the rectum is receiving radiation - basically just the part immediately adjacent to the prostate). Urinary irritative symptoms may occur over the same time course as they do with X-ray treatment, although they are generally less severe than with X-rays.
Multiple epidemiologic studies have shown that there is only a minimal increase in the risk of radiation induced cancers with protons as opposed to x-rays - likely due to the much smaller volume of tissue receiving any radiation dose. The few side effects men do have, usually resolve within a few weeks after proton irradiation is over.
WHAT ABOUT THE DATA ON THE RELATIVE SIDE EFFECTS OF PROTON THERAPY VS. IMRT?
We pooled our data with various cancer centers in order to study about 1,000 patients who had been treated for prostate cancer with Proton Beam Therapy and compared their Quality of Life scores (in the domains of urinary and bowel function) with those of a control group of men who had no treatment (because they didn't have prostate cancer).
The EPIC questionnaire was completed by all men every three months from the beginning of treatment until at least one year after treatment.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/prostate-cancer-treatment-vs-removal-surgery-side-effects-and-prognosis-each-404675
