AS someone who was treated with IMRT I wondered what % of cancer sufferers receive this treatment in particular head and neck cancer.

Not sure if it's worth starting a poll as i doubt their are enough people here to warrant it.

So go on tell us what did you have and when?



Cheers Ian

oops guess i should be the one to start


IMRT, 6 week course received June 2008 at Barts Hospital

IMRT recipient here; 35 zaps from February 14, 2008, through April 4, 2008.

Mimi

My hubby's IMRT tx ended in February this year..... 37 treatments/7 weeks..........

Hi Ian P, I had 36 sessions in Jan 2002 still suffering the aftermath.

Paul

Hi Paul!

Did you have RT or IMRT?

Mimi

Hi Paul

Maybe I'm wrong, but i wasn't aware IMRT was available in the UK as early as 2002. My understanding is that even now the number of centres offering IMRT is pretty low.

If yo udid in fact receive IMRT I would be ver interested to understand 6 years on in what way you are suffering.


Ian

I think it was available, but experimental. I recall there being a big display about it at Cheltenham oncolgy unit. I think I was a guinea pig.

In my last 2 weeks in Oct 2002 I had booster elctron treatment in addition to the original radiotherpay and in a different room to the first set. For this in the fifth week I had to go to a different room to the latest machine. I believe IMRT is sometimes referred to as boost treatment. But I could be wrong. People now know much more about the naming of their exact treatment since the internet fuels them with info and questions they can ask at the time of treatment. There seems so much more info available now than 6 years ago.

From my webpages in Week 5 I wrote
"There was a change in my treatment this week and electron treatment was added making me have 6 bursts of treatment. The mask was also adjusted and holes drilled into it so that the electrons did not react with the material."

And in week 6
"There was another change in my treatment this week and electron treatment was continued and 3 treatments omitted, making it just 3 bursts of treatment."

PaulHi, My mistake I had Radiotherapy

No too worry paul, we all make mistakes.

IMRT is now fairly widely used in the US but I THINK still comparatively rare in the UK hence the question to see what sort of % of current sufferers (say last 12-18 months) have received IMRT.

In theory side effects are much lower with IMRT and wondered if that was bourne out by experience in here.

For example I was treated at barts (after 2 operations and 1 dose of chemo) They told me i was only the 2nd person in the lst 6 months to get through treatment without a feeding tube of some sort.

Only two does seem very low, but then judging by comments in here almost everybody seems to have had some sort of tube fitted so maybe I am one of the rare ones.

Hi

I was treated at Hull with IMRT, no peg feeding tube 16 months ago, (did have a ng for 5 days).

There is a school of thought that says "standard radio" has a better outcome than IMRT in that it has a scatter effect (or something like that).

The most interest thing I did find out is different places give different amounts of radiation, don't ask me why as I don't know, perhaps up North they are tougher (I am from a southerner by birth and it bloody well hurt).

Tony

Good morning, everyone!

You can read quite a bit about IMRT right on this forum under IMRT (Proposed NICE Appraisal) by Dr. Joshi, about 4 threads up.

Mimi

Well having read Vinod's post about IMRT I am not sure I had it anymore. I have a lot of splash damage where the red veins now are. I also immediately lost salivary function and still have low saliva and it says IMRT saves it. I was also told one year later that they now saved salivary function at that unit. But I was on that planning table several times and also had xrays taken several days after stating radiation.

What I do think happens is that everyone gets an individual plan.

What I'd like to know now is did anyone else find that their treatment was adjusted to a new regime in later weeks or was it always exactly the same?
Did others have extra xrays taken as they went along to assess splash to other areas etc?
And of course its so long ago that if I hadn't written it down I would have forgotten by now!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PaulineT,

http://www.ro-journal.com/content/1/1/7

Curious now so searched a bit. This article I just found discusses simultaneous boost treatment. Maybe that's what I had, a bit of each - just totally confused now.

Hello All

(1) MCF is looking for volunteers to act as its patient representative for this NICE Technology appraisal. Any volunteers?

(2) We will be making a submission soon on behalf of head and neck cancer patients saying why it should be available to all where most appropriate. So comments from those who have had IMRT about their IMRT treatment and benefits of this as against conventional RT others have had would be appreciated.


Thanks.


Best wishes
Vinod

Founder & Chief Executive
Mouth Cancer Foundation