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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Could Gap In Radiotherapy Effect Cancer Treatment?

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 problem
I am not getting any response
Mon, 2 Jun 2014
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Oncologist,  's  Response
Hi. Ideally radiation therapy (RT) should be completed within the stipulated time. Since RT MegaVoltage 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 atleast 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 (radiobiological 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. Thankyou for choosing Healthcare Magic.
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Could Gap In Radiotherapy Effect Cancer Treatment?

Hi. Ideally radiation therapy (RT) should be completed within the stipulated time. Since RT MegaVoltage 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 atleast 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 (radiobiological 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. Thankyou for choosing Healthcare Magic.