Scans during radiation for re-planning

Jimbo55 said:

Scans during treatment
Adrian, I also had a scan during my rad/chemo treatment, as have others on this forum. It was used to check the effectiveness of the treatment and based on the decreased size of the tumor, they then adjusted the settings of the radiation treatment. I believe this is a fairly standard practice during treatment. Cheers.

Jimbo

I got checked, too
Seemed like "standard" at my center

IMRT Tomotherapy
Even after reading this board for many months, I'm not sure to what extent IMRT Tomotherapy is the way most people now go. This is how my partner was treated (just completed 6/28)and each of his 33 treatments was preceded by a CT scan--the scanner is built into the machine and seems to controvert my mother's maxim that you should never buy anything that claims to do two things because it will do neither of them well.

Regards,

Nancy

Redbanker said:

IMRT Tomotherapy
Even after reading this board for many months, I'm not sure to what extent IMRT Tomotherapy is the way most people now go. This is how my partner was treated (just completed 6/28)and each of his 33 treatments was preceded by a CT scan--the scanner is built into the machine and seems to controvert my mother's maxim that you should never buy anything that claims to do two things because it will do neither of them well.

Regards,

Nancy

Nancy, welcome to the forum....

I had the IMRT, and the machine does do X-Rays (once a week for me)...

I'm willing to bet, that your machine can and does do X-Rays but that it doesn't do CT's.

The X-Ray adds an additional 5 minutes or so and like I said, for me that was once a week.

As for a CT, I can almost guarantee the IMRT does not do a CT..

First, it isn't built to do a scan that way. A CT machine takes a good 15 - 30 minutes and is a 3D imagine producer, the IMRT delivers a concentrated radiation dose to specifically desginated areas.

This would mean the IMRT machine was doing a CT Scan and IMRT radiation simultaneously. Which again contradicts the method of the machine...a CT machine being round doesn't rotate in the same manner that a IMRT machine does. Lastly, you are injected with the contrast when doing a CT, initially then half way through the treatment.

I believe you might be mistaking the X-Ray for a CT, and again, that's only usually done once a week.

Best,
John

Skiffin16 said:

Nancy, welcome to the forum....

I had the IMRT, and the machine does do X-Rays (once a week for me)...

I'm willing to bet, that your machine can and does do X-Rays but that it doesn't do CT's.

The X-Ray adds an additional 5 minutes or so and like I said, for me that was once a week.

As for a CT, I can almost guarantee the IMRT does not do a CT..

First, it isn't built to do a scan that way. A CT machine takes a good 15 - 30 minutes and is a 3D imagine producer, the IMRT delivers a concentrated radiation dose to specifically desginated areas.

This would mean the IMRT machine was doing a CT Scan and IMRT radiation simultaneously. Which again contradicts the method of the machine...a CT machine being round doesn't rotate in the same manner that a IMRT machine does. Lastly, you are injected with the contrast when doing a CT, initially then half way through the treatment.

I believe you might be mistaking the X-Ray for a CT, and again, that's only usually done once a week.

Best,
John

Tomotherapy
Hi John,

Here's a quick 411 on Tomotherapy -- it's from Wikipedia so I wouldn't necessarily write a check on this account, but it conforms to what our radiologist told us

TomoTherapy "beam on" times are comparable to normal radiation therapy treatment times (about 3–5 minutes beam on time for a common prostate treatment) but do add an additional 2–3 minutes for a daily CT. The daily CT is used to precisely place the radiation beam and allows the operator to modify the treatment should the patients anatomy change due to weight loss or tumor shrinkage (adaptive radiotherapy). Lung cancer, head and neck tumors, breast cancer, prostate cancer, stereotactic radiosurgery(SRS) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) are some examples of treatments commonly performed using TomoTherapy. While the first clinical use of TomoTherapy was in 2002, at the University of Wisconsin, under the leadership of Dr. Minesh Mehta, M.D., there are now more than 300 sites across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

And thanks for the welcome. You are one of my heroes.

Nancy

Redbanker said:

Tomotherapy
Hi John,

Here's a quick 411 on Tomotherapy -- it's from Wikipedia so I wouldn't necessarily write a check on this account, but it conforms to what our radiologist told us

TomoTherapy "beam on" times are comparable to normal radiation therapy treatment times (about 3–5 minutes beam on time for a common prostate treatment) but do add an additional 2–3 minutes for a daily CT. The daily CT is used to precisely place the radiation beam and allows the operator to modify the treatment should the patients anatomy change due to weight loss or tumor shrinkage (adaptive radiotherapy). Lung cancer, head and neck tumors, breast cancer, prostate cancer, stereotactic radiosurgery(SRS) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) are some examples of treatments commonly performed using TomoTherapy. While the first clinical use of TomoTherapy was in 2002, at the University of Wisconsin, under the leadership of Dr. Minesh Mehta, M.D., there are now more than 300 sites across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

And thanks for the welcome. You are one of my heroes.

Nancy

Hmmm - I Stand Corrected.... :}
You are correct in referencing the IMRT TomoTherapy;

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)

This advanced therapy shapes beams of radiation to the exact contour of a tumor, helping to protect healthy tissues that surround the tumor. IMRT is revolutionizing the way that head and neck cancers, including throat cancer, are irradiated. With cancers of the tongue, throat and larynx, the lymph glands of the neck typically have to be radiated along with the cancerous tumor. This often results in permanent damage to salivary glands and a life-long dry mouth. However, IMRT makes it possible for cancer doctors to treat the lymph nodes in your neck and avoid your salivary glands during throat cancer treatment. Not so sure on that last statement, LOL....

TomoTherapy

Because of its remarkable accuracy, this special form of IMRT allows us to safely retreat tumors in areas of the throat that are extremely hard to reach. TomoTherapy® integrates imaging technology with radiation therapy. Each time you receive a TomoTherapy® throat cancer treatment, you will first undergo a CT scan from the same machine. Just minutes after the CT scan is taken, radiation therapists make technical adjustments to the system to align your programmed radiation treatment to the precise position you are in.


Apparently these are two different types of machines (I believe)...

I had the IMRT, but not with the TomoTherapy. I did have X-Rays once a week....and traditional CT scans in the machine same machine (or similar) to that in which I get the PET Scan..each with a contrast injected first.

I'll have to ask about the IMRT/TomoTherapy machine...

I know they just purchased a newer type of PET Scan machine, looks like two butted up next to each other. It also cuts the contrast down 30% and the time of the scan itself by 30%.

Always glad to learn of newer technology....even old dogs can learn something new.

And thank you for the compliment...

Don't think of myself as a Hero, but I do hope that I can help others and try to do it with a straight on approach. Sometimes people like that, sometimes they don't....but at least I try to be consistent, LOL...

Best,
John

adrian b said:

Thanks everyone
Thank you all for responding to my post. Just had the MRI done and meet with the rad/onc tomorrow to review the results. Did you all have your MRI's with your rad mask on? They struggled to try and fit it while I was on the MRI machine but got their eventually.

For the others who posted about the Tomo machine, that is what I am receiving my treatment on. Was told this morning that it is the only one in Australia, though more are on order.

CT with Mask
During my initial CT or PET, I did have the mask on for about 10 minutes or so at the end. Mainly checking fit and sort of a trial run also.

Best,
John