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Radiation Oncology • Genitourinary Cancers
How do you deal with an interruption in definitive EBRT for prostate cancer?
If the patient has received the majority of treatment, such as 24 of 28 planned fractions (60/70 Gy), and then had a 1 - 2 week unexpected break, would you deliver the rest of treatment as planned? would you dose escalate or add on fractions? Truncate the course early?
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution
The evidence that total treatment time matters in prostate cancer is pretty weak. In general, I would proceed as planned when the patient is able to resume without increasing the intended total dose. In this case, I would prefer not to stop at 60 Gy, as that dose probably would not be curative. Unle...
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Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution
Proceed as planned. Jim Parsons looked at our planned split course outcomes from the late 60s and early 70s, no difference in outcomes in contrast to the detrimental impact on head and neck.
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Community Practice
We ran into this question in stark reality when a cyberattack shut down the entire Irish public radiation service last May. Our prostate patients were off treatment for almost three weeks. There isn’t a lot of data out there to support compensation - we elected to finish out treatment as plann...