Walter Piskorski describes his experience at the Radiation Center of Greater Nashua as a “blessing in disguise.” He began visiting the center for prostate cancer treatment and discovered along the way that he could get radiation therapy for another ailment: knee pain caused by osteoarthritis.

During a follow-up visit for his prostate cancer, Piskorski, 76, was talking to one of the center’s nurses about his knee pain.

“I said if it wasn’t for my [darn] painful arthritic knee, I’d be a happy camper,” he said, after learning he was cancer-free.

The nurse let Piskorski know that his doctor, Dr. Vivek L. Patel, has a treatment for osteoarthritis using low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT). He met with Dr. Patel that day and scheduled six doses of radiation for his knee.

LDRT is a non-invasive treatment that targets inflamed joints with very low, precisely targeted doses of radiation. The radiation helps reduce inflammation, leading to pain relief and improved function.

By the second treatment, Walter noticed less pain in his knee, and by the third visit, it was completely gone. 

“That kind of unprovoked throbbing that used to just appear out of nowhere…that disappeared fairly quickly,” he said.

While Piskorski points out that LDRT doesn’t cure osteoarthritis, it did significantly reduce his knee pain. He was so happy with the results that he told his friends about LDRT.

“It’s a no-brainer treatment, it’s not invasive,” he said. “It’s easy. It’s six visits of 10 minutes each over a two-week period of time, so it’s not like you have to do something that causes trauma. No, you just sit there, and you get zapped, and then you go home and say ‘well, that was easy.’”