Ron Weaver wears his status as Patient 1035 as a badge of honor.

The 65-year-old Rogers man received the number as a prostate cancer patient at ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City.

Proton beam radiation therapy is a type of high-energy, external radiation therapy that targets tumors with streams of protons.

The treatment is very precise and limits radiation exposure to other areas of the body, said Dr. Nancy Cersonsky. She is Weaver’s doctor at ProCure in Oklahoma City.

“Protons only go so far and then stop. It means you have a reduced risk of having side effects, secondary cancers, diarrhea and bladder issues,” she said.

Weaver opted for proton therapy after learning he had advanced prostate cancer 10 months ago.

Almost 2,000 Arkansas men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, said Bev Eckert, interim executive director of the Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation. One in six men will get the disease during their lifetime.

Weaver learned he had a high PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, level during a routine physical. He hadn’t had an exam for three years and was not feeling ill when he went to the doctor.

“My advice to men is to have checkups every year,” he said.

June is Men’s Health Month, and medical professionals across the country use it as an opportunity to encourage men to seek regular medical advice and early treatment for disease and injury.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. About one in 36 men will die of prostate cancer.

Nearly two-thirds of cases are diagnosed in men 65 years and older.

The cancer is very treatable, especially if caught early, Eckert said.

“Men too often wait to go to the doctor when they are sick. If they wait, the cancer can spread,” she said.

Weaver’s initial treatment plan included surgery, but a conversation with Patient 11 changed his plans. His sister in Searcy County had a neighbor who underwent proton therapy, and she connected the two.

“He had his treatment four years ago and hit the ground running and hasn’t looked back,” Weaver said. “This was just a couple days before I was set for surgery.”

Weaver started treatment in early February and finished March 5. He said he went to the therapy center five days a week over his five weeks of treatment. Each session lasted about five minutes.

“The only drawback is you have to be away from home,” he said. “But people go to the center from all over the world, and there is such a family atmosphere there. It was a great experience for having cancer.”

The high-dose, targeted radiation treatment is only offered at a handful of sites across the country. Centers usually cost $100 million to $200 million to build, according to a Kaiser Health News report.

The National Association for Proton Therapy lists 10 proton therapy centers operating in the United States,eight under construction and one in development. The first center opened in 1990 at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California.

Treatment is also more expensive than traditional radiation therapy. Medicare pays more than $32,000 per patient for proton therapy compared with under $19,000 for radiation, according to a recent study by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Eckert said not all insurances cover proton therapy, and men may have to consider out-of-pocket costs when making treatment choices.

Weaver said his insurance covered his treatment, and he isn’t sure what he would have done if it wasn’t covered.

“You can’t put a price on the quality of care I received,” he said.

Cersonsky said some insurance companies still consider proton therapy an experimental treatment, which she said it is not.

The upfront costs are higher than traditional radiation therapy, but Cersonsky said those costs are recovered by lowering the risk of side effects and cancer recurrence.

Weaver said he had very few side effects from the proton therapy, but he did require an additional procedure because his cancer was so advanced. He under went brachytherapy, meaning radioactive implants were placed directly in his prostate.

Cersonsky said brachytherapy gives a higher kill rate on the cancer cells, and the radiation is mostly gone in about 60 days.

Weaver travels back to Oklahoma City in August for a follow-up visit, and he said he will be sure to have his annual checkups.

“It changes your life,” he said.

Life, Pages 6 on 06/19/2013