30 day Adjuvent Radiation for Rectal Cancer- QUESTIONS!

[StupidAssCancer]

My doctor has ordered me to have 30 sessions of radiation . This is adjuvant therapy. I have already had my surgery -Iliostomy with J pouch and have completed three months of chemotherapy already.
I was allergic to the Xeloda so I will be doing this with no radiation stimulator/chemo.
Has anyone done rectal radiation this way?
Any tips you can share to make it radiation easier, less painful, more tolerable, more effective?
Share with me your thoughts, story etc! Any advice is appreciated!
thank you!

[justin case]

This is interesting. It is feasible to have radiation without chemo, if indeed all the cancer is out of the area(I GUESS ). Radiation is usually given with chemo, as active cancer cells are being attacked split or what ever form of annihilation you prefer. I am curious whether you would be getting as high a dose of radiation. This seems like an unusual treatment plan, but very savvy if indeed you cannot trust any chemo. I hope this plan gives you an excellent response. Warm baths and pain medication were my relief.
Regards,
Michael

[Ehut]

I had radiation treatment without chemo, but it was the "short course" European protocol administered before surgery. It consisted of 5 sessions (one per day) at about double the standard daily dose, followed by my primary/liver resection the following week. I went this route because I was stage IV and my liver had a good response to the first 4 cycles of FOLFOX, and the doctors at Mayo didn't think it made sense to delay surgery on the liver to spend time radiating the primary. They cited a European study that concluded it would be about equally effective to the standard protocol for my case. I can't say whether it helped or not, but so far no cancer has returned.

[O Stoma Mia]

...My doctor has ordered me to have 30 sessions of radiation . This is adjuvant therapy..."Sept 2013-PET active lite up Lymps left neck"]

Alys - I have a couple of questions:

• What kind of radiation therapy will this be, and what kind of machine will be used? Some machines can deliver high-dose, targeted radiation to a very specific location, thus avoiding damage to any adjacent organs (e.g. Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy [SBRT]; Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy [IMRT] ), while other types of machine just blast the whole pelvic area without any particular focus, thereby causing all sorts of collateral damage. Do you know what kind of radiation you will be getting, and at what dose?
  
  
• About your PET scan and the involved neck lymph nodes--did the radiologist's report say whether this was due to inflammation, or due to a malignancy, or what? There are several reasons why lymph nodes might light up on a PET scan, with (non-malignant) inflammation being one of the prime candidates. Do they have a plan for deciding what, exacty, is causing the neck lymph nodes to light up ?

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(Edited to correct error in IMRT acronym)

[StupidAssCancer]

Hi,
[*] Thank you for asking! To be honest I don't know what "type if radiation I am getting. I will ask tomorrow. The machine first X-rays me then it circles around my body at 1/8th incriminates delivering radiation to my rectum. I've had 7 treatments so far before I had to quit due to the zeloda allergy. I can feel it and its not pleasant. Unsure how ill walk or sit after the next 23 treatments!
[*] The PET scan did not address wether or not the lymphs in neck were due to inflammation etc. The oncologist wants them biopsied. He said it would be extremely totally rare for my cancer to have malignatized to that area. He said there is a slim chance it's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but very slim. He seemed kinda stumped and wants the biopsies for peace of mind for the both of us I think.
[*]i just read the PET scan and my rectum did "light" up with a 4.7 level uptake however he told me that is normal even though the PET scan states it is abnormal... Frustrating, there is so much conflicting info from one dr to the next in my situation I am finding! And I can't tell you how many times I've asked a question to the Dr and received a "I Don't Know" answerback. Truly I can't be the first person to be asking these questions or wanting this information.
xo,
Alys
ps ill report back tomorrow with exactly what type of radiation I'm getting

[CRguy]

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy [SBRT];
....... Image Modulated Radiation Therapy [IMRT] )

We should be careful throwing around generic abbreviations and references .... just a friendly FYI.

SBRT would typically be used for targetted therapy of specified lesions, specifically localized stereotactically within the body, to avoid radiating sensitive tissues....( i.e. used for localized thoracic mets )

So called broad beam or generalized "local" radiation just kind of blasts what is in the area.

IMRT is actually INTENSITY Modulated Radiation Therapy .... not image Modulated Radiation Therapy, and as such adjusts the intensity of the radiation beam based upon the 3 dimensional configuration of the actual tumor field to be treated and the radiation beams "access" to the targetted tissue through the patient, while in a given position on the platform.

BOTH SBRT and IMRT take into consideration the field of treatment and anything "important" in the way of the radiation so as NOT to over irradiate or harm sensitive, normal tissues.

BOTH are basically computerized modalities, whereas the broad beam / field irradiation is more old school with less of the modern enhancements.

[PGLGreg]

I had adjuvant radiation for 6 weeks after surgery for rectal cancer. However, though I didn't have Xeloda, I did have 2 weeks of 5fu+leucovorin, with the radiation. I didn't have a lot of difficulty with this, except I did have lots of rectal gas -- farts.