Joseph Huang, left, and Robert Bangs chat during a Prostate Club dinner.SEATTLE – Ray Cassingham didn’t know a single person at the table when he first sat down. Not a one.
But before the server at Saltoro in North Seattle had even brought water, Cassingham was talking about a medical procedure that involved his being naked from the waist down – and a balloon.
Welcome to The Prostate Club, a monthly gathering of prostate-cancer patients from the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s (SCCA) Proton Therapy Center.
The center opened in North Seattle three years ago. With proton therapy, radiation goes in at a low dose. Once it hits the tumor, the energy spikes and immediately drops off. Patients undergo 44 daily procedures, which means many move to the area for nine weeks of treatment without knowing anyone.
“When you first talk to them, they’re at wits end and dying to get some answers,” says Brian Kuest, the prostate intake coordinator who guides patients through the treatment process. “They don’t know who else to talk to.