Oceanna Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 I am NSCLC stage IV and will be having a tumor removed from iliac very soon. I am considering ablation; 10 treatments of conventional radiation; high dose focused radiation over 2-3 days; and, low on my list, chemo again. I am just becoming familiar with these options -- most of which I learned from Lungevity (!) and its bloggers, and need some input, comments, knowledge -- anything that anyone's got. Also, I've heard of "CyberKnife" and am wondering if that is just a form of high-dose that can be done by other brands. I am very grateful for all I learn on these blogs. Thanks for being here!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oceanna Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 Also, I am not sure (can't get this out of italics; maybe supposed to be this way) if I just CREATED another 'group' or whatever, but I intended to post this message on the Radiation Treatment forum. I'll check but if anyone knows, let me know , if you have a minute. I WILL figure out how these work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Galli Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 Oceanna, Welcome here. First on using bold, italics and underlined font. Notice the letters B I U S Tx at the top of the page where you write your post. These are the font control keys. When you left click on one of these letters, a gray rectangle appears around the letter. Then your text will reflect bold, italics, underlined, strikeout and etc. Left click again to return to normal font. Your post described the type of radiation you are having as "high dose focused radiation over 2-3 days". That sounds like precision radiation. There are two general types of radiation used to treat lung cancer: fractional radiation and precision radiation. The former breaks the whole dose into fraction and one receives that fractional does over a number of days. Generally, fractional radiation consists of 30 doses given Monday through Friday given over the span of 6 weeks. Precision radiation is a much higher dose given over very short periods at a very specific area. I had both and both are effective. Here is some more information on radiation used to treat lung cancer. CyberKnife is a type of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). More precisely, CyberKnife is a trade name coined by the maker of the machine used to delver the precision radiation. Think of SBRT as a car and CybefKnife as a Ford. I believe you are describing having radiation therapy prior to surgery and trying to decide which form of radiation you should have. I had fractional radiation (30 sessions of radiation, M-F, for 6 weeks) and weekly chemotherapy (Taxol and Carboplatin) before my surgery. This pre-surgical treatment is normally given together. The radiation attacks the tumor while the chemotherapy ensures all the cancer cells are swept up in the blood stream and lymphatic system. If your doctor is advising you to have this treatment, then you should consider chemo as a necessary part of the treatment. The object is to ensure there are no cancer cells floating around to cause a recurrence after your surgery. Stay the course. Tom Judy M2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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