If there is a gap during radio therapy due to machine not working, please suggest My mother is going through RT she got breast cancer stage 1 and going through RT, some times machine does not not works and three four days gap accures. please sugest is it problemI am not getting any response
Hi. Ideally radiation therapy (RT) should be completed within the stipulated time. Since RT MegaVolt age machines have sophisticated electronics, machine breakdowns do occur and are common world over. To overcome the detrimental effects of gaps during RT, different institutes follow different SOPs. Some are:1. Treat on closed day/ bank holidays to cover for gap.2. Give two exposures of RT per day with a gap of at least 6 hours in a day.3. Increase the dose per exposure to compensate for the gaps.4. Shifting patient to a mirror machine in case of long breakdowns. Fortunately breast cancer has a slow doubling time and time to kick off (radio biological terms which I will not be able to explain unless you have a sound knowledge of radiation biology) and so gaps are not as detrimental as in Head & Neck cancer or cancer of cervix. I will still suggest that you discuss with your oncologist regarding gap compensation strategies. I hope your question has been answered. If you have any further questions I will be happy to answer. Thank you for choosing Chat Doctor.