Just wondering as I am due to start this on Monday. Had a meeting with the onc today to go through it all and it seems quite different. I know it is quite new and there are only 5 machines in the country but I just wondered if anyone else had had it. Debx
Bumping up xxx
Seems like you are lucky to be offered this type of radiotherapy. I felt blessed to have been treated with IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy) but tomotherapy is the next step on from IMRT. In both of these treatments the intention is to put the highest dose of RT where it is most needed and minimise SEs elsewhere. The standard version of RT is quite crude and results in overlapping fields of treatment which is what causes the SEs that most people suffer - particularly the soreness and blistering on the underside of the breast, and the nipple. After being treated with IMRT I suffered minimal SEs, just a sun tan (on very fair skin) and feeling warm inside the breast. This peaked about 4 weeks after finishing rads and has now, 7 1/2 weeks after rads, subsided to a barely noticeable tanned square and temperature back to normal since several weeks ago. The only continuing effect so far is that the breast tissue still stiffens up and has to be eased off with exercise, but I’m needing to do that less frequently and not as vigorously as I did a couple of weeks ago.
If you Google the info you will find that the UK is lagging badly behind most other countries in providing IMRT or its successors, even compared with the Eastern European countries.
Be grateful you’ve been offered this form of treatment!
Sarah x
I am sorry that this note is coming to you late, but still wanted to let you know that if you visit the TomoTherapy, Inc website, there is a list of the locations of the TomoTherapy machinces in the UK. Unfortunately, you are right in that the choices of locations at this point are limited. Here is the website link:
tomotherapy.com/centers/list/55/United%20Kingdom
There is also information on the site for you to review about treatment on TomoThearpy. I am a breast cancer survivor (20 years) and if this option had been available to me at the time of my diagnosis, I would have most certainly taken advantage of it given the speed of delivery and the reduced damage to surrounding tissue.
Best of luck to you as you go through your treatment process.
Hi
Had my first session of tomotherapy today. I have to have ct every session and then go back into the machine for 16 mins. Which for me is a long time to be completely still. But hopefully this machine will do it’s job and protect my heart ( tumour site too close for normal rads). Will update this thread at a later date incase anyone else uses this machine in the future. Thanks debx