Hi Ali......it was me that was saying I wanted my husband's blood count
checked.  It was done 9 days ago and we haven't heard a word.....which
nowadays means there was no problem.  I think I will phone on Tuesday (May
24th long weekend up here in Canada) and get his results and my cholesterol
ones too.  I always like to know the *numbers*.

I would definitely ask a lot of questions re the rectal bleeding.....my
brother-in-law had that and it definitely turned out to be a warning that
had nothing to do with Pca.  But the doctors had ignored it until he was so
tired he couldn't move.

Good luck.....Heather

I did some research on this in Pubmed a while ago and
couldn't find any articles claiming radiation caused anemia.
However hormone therapy can cause it.  When given in
combined drug form it -usually- causes it.

Here's one article on it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra
ct&list_uids=8876707

One sentence from the conclusions is:
"Since anemia has not been observed after treatment
with XRT alone or XRT followed by zoladex, we
conclude that the anemia was due to CAB."

By XRT they mean pelvic radiation.  By CAB
they mean combined androgen blockade - using
multiple agents combined to block testosterone.

Your doctor may have been quite right not to say
that IMRT can directly cause anemia.  It may be due to
hormones, to bleeding (which, admittedly, was
caused by the IMRT), or to some other factor

Is your husband also getting hormone therapy?  If
so, that's a possible cause.

   Alan

I don't know about anemia, but feeling tired and rectal bleeding are
common side effects during IMRT treatment.  

I had bleeding a few times and it was disconcerting to say the least:
to be blunt, much more profuse than just a little spotting.  If I
hadn't been forewarned, it would have put me in a panic.  

It was explained to me that is location of the prostate in relation to
the rectum varies because whatever may be in the colon and rectum at
any given time will change the location of the prostate.  So radiation
beamed to the pre-determined area might hit healthy rectal as well as
urinary tract tissue instead of just the prostate.  If so, the results
may be urinary problems (difficulty starting, slow stream, incomplete
voiding) and rectal bleeding.  Both are temporary and go away after
treatment.  Whether they will return 3, 5, 10 years down the line is
another question.

Tiredness is universal.  After a year, I still am not sure that I'm
100% over the effects, but that may be in my head.  Count on him
feeling a little better each day commencing about a month after the
treatments end.

Good luck. There are no free rides, unfortunately.