Accelerated Radiation Therapy - Good Idea or Bad?

From what I've read, hyperfractionated radiation works well.Itis primarily for women who live in rural areas who can'tesily get to a treatment facility for radiation. If you live near a hospital, I would probably stick to a traditional radiation treatment schedule. If you live far away, you should use the hyperfractionated radiation schedule.

Hi,

I just finished accelerated treatment, twice a day for 5 days. I can't compare to longer treatment but it is nice to be finished. I am very tired and sore. I worked through the first three days but took the last two off due to tiredness and migraine headache.  I am wondering how long the tiredness might last?  

Amysharp, I just finished radation tx which I recieved double the dose, 21 tx and 4 boost. I had a an allergic reaction to the rads toward the end. My skin did not tolerated it very well, my left breast was burned, swollen and blistered open. I used lots of cream 3 x day and finally went to doing dombrax soaks to help with the burning. My experience with radation was not that good and the staff was not clued in to my emotional status. I hope your experience is better than mine and the staff is kind toward needs. Let me know how it goes. Blackjack

I have also been undergoing accelerated radiation....the rad onc told me that he has only used this version for inflammtory breast cancer. Since I received all of my chemo in CA, and have moved to OR, I was a bit freaked out in general when I started the treatments. I have since learned that the fractionization reduces the total amount of rads that I will receive (a bit) and my treatment will last a total of 22 days, of which I have completed 1/2. Some pinkness, which is increasing as treatment continues, and a bit of difficulty swallowing, which i did not expect. I am using aloe vera for the skin, and monitoring the "lump in the throat" this weekend.

I am wondering if there are other Inflammatory BC patients who have been undergoing this treatment form., and how you're doing/did with it.

Jeanlin

63 years old, diagnosed 3/31/07, TAC chemo started 5/9/07, bilateral mastectomy 8/16/07, Taxol infused 9/8/07, fractionated radiation (2x per day) started 11/ 14/07.

I asked my radiation oncologist if I could have the accelerated treatment because I was leaving the country for a month and a half, and I barely had time to finish six weeks of rads. He told me that because of my breast size (I'm fairly large breasted) I wasn't a good candidate for it. He was so funny. He's a little Chinese man (from China), and he was trying to find a way to explain it to me. Here's the best he could come up with: It's like the difference between cooking a large roast and cooking a small one. LOL Apparently, the higher levels of radiation required to get through all my breast tissue in the accelerated treatment would be much harder on me. He didn't recommend it. I'm doing the six weeks.

Hi Amyshap, My radiation oncologist presented the option of the 15 day high dose external radiation.  I did some research & this is nicknamed the "Canadian" protocol.  It is widely used in Canada where there is a very long waiting list for radiation.  From what I read, the fatigue & burning is more pronounced in this shorter version.  I opted for the internal high dose radiation - brachytherapy & I am glad I went that route.

Ohhh, I just found this thread, after posting two weeks ago about the 3 week accelerated treatment.  This was offered to me but I decided I wanted to go more traditional.  Yes, it was first conceived in Canada and Memorial Sloan Kettering is an advocate of this treatment. 

I need to make a decision on this ASAP and this post is 5 years old....any thoughts/experiences? (I had left side DCIS and lumpectomy revealed a 1 mm microinvasion so I had a re-excision with clear margins)

Kira, It would we external over 3 weeks or 6 depending on the "coin flip"