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What happens
There are 2 types of radiation treatments to choose from. (Your doctor may prefer one over the other depending on your cancer.):
1. External beam radiation
- This method fights the cancer with radiation from outside
of the body.
- The medical team will direct a beam of radiation at
your prostate.
- You do not check into a hospital. You get treated as
an outpatient.
- You go to a hospital or a clinic 5 days a week, for
7 to 8 weeks.
- Each treatment lasts about 15 minutes.
- Conformal external beam radiation is a better way of
directing the radiation to the prostate. This will lead to
fewer side effects and better control of the cancer than
regular beam radiation.
2. Internal seed radiation: Also called brachytherapy
(bray-kee-THER-a-pee)
- Radiation seeds are placed into the prostate.
- You do not check into a hospital. You get treated as
an outpatient.
- The seeds destroy cancer cells inside the tumor, but they
do not do much damage to the tissue around the prostate.
- Doctors sometimes use external beam radiation along
with seeds.
If you choose radiation treatment, your doctor may also
suggest that you take medicine to reduce your male hormones.
- The combination has been shown to improve the chances that your treatment is successful.
- Hormone therapy may last for several months. It may
mean getting regular injections. It can be stopped if it
is not working.
- This can have its own side effects such as loss of sexual
desire, hot flashes, and loss of energy.
To see pictures of how radiation works,
please see page 5.
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