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User
Posted 18 Jan 2018 at 19:02
Hello everyone,

I'm 60 years old and retired in July 2014 after over thirty years working in the NHS. I was diagnosed with PC in the early part of 2015. Psa 9.1 with a Gleason 7 contained with the capsule. Post surgery psa results have risen steadily ( 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, with a recent score of 0.12 ) My surgeon has referred me to a oncologist with a possible course of radiotherapy.After only brief research it appears radiotherapy varies from one NHS Trust to the other, using different equipment and techniques.Can anyone share their own experience/knowledge regarding this.I am new to this site and have already found a lot of reassurance and good information from scanning through old posts. Many thanks for taking the time to read my piece,and all the very best to you all.

Paul.

User
Posted 19 Jan 2018 at 01:15

I am not aware of any particular concerns about variations in quality of RT across regions, although there is unnecessary confusion caused by different language used. For example, a member on here recently posted that he was to have EBRT which provoked members to advise that EBRT is rather outdated and has been replaced by IMRT, RapidArc, and various other types. Of course, it turned out that he was indeed in the care of a centre of excellence with modern machines - perhaps his onco just still likes using the umbrella term because they are all types of external radiotherapy.

Which hospital are you under? You should be able to check on their website what types they actually offer.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 19 Jan 2018 at 07:30

There are areas which deliver the same total dose of radiation but over a different timespan. There have been trials on this. Although I rejected RT I was only offered it over 7 weeks which was 35 fractions. However it was using a modern IMRT machine. I think the latest craze is to have the RT over 4 weeks which is 20 fractions. I was flatly refused this on two occasions. So yes there are regional variations but I think most machines are IMRT even if referred to as EBRT

User
Posted 19 Jan 2018 at 10:00
Good morning,

Sorry for late response.Thanks Lyn and Chris J for your help. Your replies have satisfied me regarding this topic,thank you.

Paul

 
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