Prostate Cancer Survivor is an Advocate for Proton Therapy

Prostate Cancer patients are fitted with custom molds to immobilize them during treatment at the IU Health Proton Therapy Center. Rick Otey is seen here holding his mold decorated with his race numbers from the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone 5K Run/Walk, an annual fundraiser for Jill’s House and the Jill Behrman Emerging Leaders Scholarship and Indiana University.

"Proton therapy made prostate cancer a non-event in my life." -- Rick Otey

Prostate cancer diagnosed in 2005 at 55 years old, Gleason score of 6 and a PSA of 4.1. At last check up, PSA of 1.1.

While Rick Otey was undergoing proton therapy for his prostate cancer at the IU Health Proton Therapy Center (then MPRI), folks in his hometown of Tremont, Ill., could not understand how he could keep running several miles a day; or, where he found the energy to volunteer two days a week at a homeless shelter; or how he felt well enough to make the four-hour trip home every weekend to be with his wife.

“There was no reason not to,” said Rick, a small business owner and marathon runner diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 55. “I felt good.”

“I would see people at home on the weekend and they would tell me how good I looked,” he says. “They did not expect that.”

From his research on the various treatments available for prostate cancer, Rick knew just what to expect from his nine weeks of proton therapy.

The staff at the Proton Therapy Center arranged his treatments for Monday through Thursday evenings and early Friday morning, so that he could spend three-day weekends at home in Illinois playing with grandkids—and even detailing a car or two, his new business after retiring from a 30-year career at Caterpillar.

“The staff told me that after my first treatment, I wouldn’t think they had done anything because I wouldn’t feel a thing,” says Rick. “And they were right! You do not feel anything during treatment, and the daily treatments do not monopolize your day.”

Rick found himself getting involved in the Bloomington community, and he was able to keep up his active lifestyle. “Bloomington is a great town, and I enjoyed every minute of it,” he says.

Today, Rick is both cancer free and free of treatment-related side effects. He only wishes that was the case for other prostate cancer survivors he knows.

“I have seen men choose other treatment options and have a different experience than I did,” he says. “And I see them paying the consequences. My own doctor only offered me two treatment options – neither of which was proton therapy – but I did my own research.”

Through various Websites and e-mail exchanges with other prostate cancer survivors, Rick learned that there were several treatment options, all of which offered similar cure rates. But not all of the options offered Rick the same quality of life after treatment.

“Quality of life issues were important to me and I recognized that incontinence and impotence were two side effects of other treatment options,” he said. “I kept talking to guys who had proton therapy, and they all said it was a no-brainer because there were so few side effects – if any.”

“When I met with the staff at the Proton Therapy Center and saw the Bloomington community, I was sold,” Rick continues. “I said, ‘That’s the ticket for me.’”

Rick feels so fortunate to have found proton therapy. He has even written a book, “Prostate Cancer: A Survivor’s Guide to Help with Your Decision for Treatment,” (available at http://www.lulu.com), and he started his own blog site on prostate cancer to help spread the word to others in need.

“It is frustrating to me to see people go through things if they do not have to. People need to know there is a treatment out there for cancer that doesn’t mean getting sick,” he says. “They need to know about proton therapy.”

Rick adds, “I am totally convinced I made the right decision. Because of proton therapy, prostate cancer did not affect my life at all.”