Treated 2017 · Posted 2017
"I completed eight weeks of proton therapy on April 21, 2017 and my PSA has already decreased substantially. Throughout my proton treatment, I have had no side effects and I feel great. I am very grateful for the miracle of proton therapy!"
At age 76, my PSA went from 8.8 to 14.0 and my doctor did a biopsy, which found 9 of 12 samples had cancer. My Gleason score was 7 (3+4).
My urologist said I'd need treatment within a few months, and said he was trained as a surgeon, and hence was biased toward surgery. But, unlike most urologists, he told me there are other treatments and encouraged me to research them (!).
In the 1970's my father had prostate cancer and underwent conventional radiation, which left him incontinent and impotent, and very angry. Vowing not to go that route, I began talking with and emailing men who went through proton therapy, thanks to referrals from the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute and the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute. I called and spoke to medical folks at those two facilities and also at Mass General Hospital (where I had been treated in 2012 for a ruptured hernia). MGH could not take me because of my one metal hip, so I chose UFTPI in Jacksonville, FL because they could treat me despite the hip.
I completed eight weeks of proton therapy on April 21, 2017 and my PSA has decreased substantially. Throughout my proton treatment, I have had no side effects and I feel great. I am very grateful for the miracle of proton therapy!
Regards,
Bob Gibbons, age 77