Tomotherapy (High Art)

I haev a large mediastinal Tumor that has been non-responsive to several rounds of chemos and am considering radiation therapy. Radition Oncologist have been concerned about potential damage to adjacent organs. The facility that I am at does not use the newer TomoTherapy Radiataion equipment and I am looking for people who have been treated with this state of the art radiation equipment that is supposed to mitigate damage to adjacent organs heart, lungs, etc.).....Please write me if you have been treated with it and what your experience was.

 

On 6/3/2007 Puggy wrote:

I haev a large mediastinal Tumor that has been non-responsive to several rounds of chemos and am considering radiation therapy. Radition Oncologist have been concerned about potential damage to adjacent organs. The facility that I am at does not use the newer TomoTherapy Radiataion equipment and I am looking for people who have been treated with this state of the art radiation equipment that is supposed to mitigate damage to adjacent organs heart, lungs, etc.).....Please write me if you have been treated with it and what your experience was.

 

Hello, was researching and came across this board and your message. I hope I can relieve your concern a little bit. I received the old-fashioned, high-dosage radiation therapy in the early '80s when I was a teenager, for Hodgkin's stage III B. It was a much higher and dangerous form than used today. I had six weeks of radiation therapy for a large mediastinal mass, plus 11 weeks of chemo. I'm happy to say I have had no side effects whatsoever from the radiation or chemo -- no recurrance of Hodgkin's, no secondary cancers, no health effects at all other than some problems tolerating cold (which is no big deal). I'm 45 and training for my first marathon. I play tournament tennis. Please don't let yourself get too upset about the potential side effects way down the road. The main thing is to knock out your Hodgkin's now, and worry about the price of that later -- if there is a price. As I can personally attest, sometimes there isn't, and you can enjoy a long, healthy life after treatment. Best of luck to you!

I was treated with Tomotherapy (prostate) and had virtually no side effects. I have also spoken with numerous patients who underwent Tomotherapy and virtually no one said anything about any major side effects. You should definitely find a center using this technology. The facility where I was treated had both Tomotherapy as well as more traditional (Varian) IMRT. My radiation oncologist told me that if he could schedule everyone on Tomotherapy then he'd do it. He simply had too large a patient load so some patients had to be scheduled using the old technology. If you need help then I am sure you could contact someone at the company itself who could put you in touch with a nearby center / radiation oncologist. Definitely only go this route and let me know if I can be of further assistance.