Treating My Prostate Cancer With Proton Therapy
Thursday, March 01, 2001
This is one man’s journal to recovery. Yet it could be any man. A husband, son, brother, friend. It could be you. Excluding skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. During 2001, of every 100 men diagnosed with cancer in the United States, more than 25 will have prostate cancer. This disease will kill more than 31,000 men this year.
Prostate cancer can grow slowly and often remains undetected for an extended period. Doctors recommend tests, including the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, to promote early detection. This blood test can indicate abnorm a l prostate function. Early diagnosis and treatment are important keys to survival.
My name is Eugene Pitrof. I live in a rural community outside Washington, D.C. I have been a lawyer in the same private practice since 1963. I am a 65-year old married man with four children. And, I have prostate cancer.
May 17, 1999. I squeezed my annual exam in between court appearances and clients. After my appointment, I received a call from the doctor ’s office, my PSA level was elevated. As a precaution, I took a course of antibiotics and repeated the test.
June 2. My PSA was still high—3.8. My doctor was concerned. A PSA score over 4 is considered borderline. He advised me to retest in six months.
October 13, 2000. I have a busy firm. I usually work six days a week. I foolishly had not seen my physician for over a year. Now my PSA was 5.9.
November 7. After another course of antibiotics, my PSA result remained high—4.7. I decided to contact a urologist.
November 21. My urologist performed a biopsy. The only symptom of any problem I had noticed were more nighttime trips to the bathroom. I had attributed it to getting older.
November 23. My wife and I obtained the result from my urologist—prostate cancer. We shared the news with our children. I wanted to treat my cancer aggressively. I began to inquire amongst my friends and clients. What choices had other men made?
During the next several days, I spoke with several acquaintances who had opted to have radical prostatectomies. One told me he would never do it again. Another said he now experienced incontinence. Still another mentioned impotence.
November 30. I met with a surgeon to discuss the radical prostatectomy procedure. I was wary of surgery because of the serious side effects and because of risk of surgery complications. But, I was prepared to do it, if I determined it was my best option.
A few days later, a friend contacted me with some information he had found on the Internet. A hospital in California, Loma Linda University Medical Center, used protons in a non-invasive approach to treat prostate cancer.
I called the Proton Treatment Center hotline and requested literature. I was impressed by the information I received and by several medical journal articles about proton therapy.
At my next urology appointment, my specialist described my options. When I told him I wanted proton therapy, he endorsed the program as he could not offer me a comparable option.
