Radiation Therapy and the Prostate Cancer Patients

Prostate cancer is probably the most common cancer that inflicts men’s health. Late adults are often affected. Once the prostate cancer moves to advanced stage, then the metastatic cells may spread to the bone leaving an intractable type of pain. The patient may opt to receive higher and more frequent radiation therapy just to ease the painful situation. The chair of the board of directors for the American Society for Radiation Oncology, Dr. Colleen Lawton was surprised to learn that single-session radiation treatments were seen in only about 3 percent of men therapy; whereas so many patients had more than 10 fractions. Fraction is the term used by radiation oncologists that refers to the number of radiation sessions. Dr. Justin Bekelman, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia pointed out, "The goal with this treatment is to treat pain. It has nothing to do with survival." Therefore, patients should be feel free to ask questions to their doctor if multiple radiation treatments or single-radiation treatments are advised to minimize the pain experience.