claudejgreengrass—
I believe there is variation between countries, health systems, and practices. Keep in mind that radiation treatments, particularly if you’re receiving targeted radiation as opposed to old-fashioned wide-field radiation, require some time to develop and check (these are now software-driven). Additionally, while weeks may seem interminably long to us cancer patients when we’re waiting for treatment, the time tables are based on likely growth rates, and CRC is in most cases quite slow-growing. Thus, what you experienced is not wildly out-of-line based on my experience. Additionally, your combination of prostate and rectal cancer may well have complicated things, particularly with respect to your radiation treatments, and particularly if your rad oncs are trying to minimize damage to healthy tissue, as they usually do.
A couple of additional questions, though. Your signature discloses only a CT of the abdomen and pelvis. Given that you have rectal cancer, I think a thoracic CT, at least, is also in order. A full body PET-CT would be ideal at this early stage to rule out distant metastases. Perhaps you had those tests but didn’t mention them, but if not, I’d ask, particularly about the thoracic CT. Good luck!
[Edited to add: It looks like they may be going after the prostrate first with radiation, letting the chemo do the work on the rectal tumor for now. That might, or might not, be consistent with the TNT (Total
Neoadjuvant Therapy) approach to rectal cancer. Your post suggests some level of disconnect between you and your team. Particularly because you have two types of pelvic cancer (rectal and prostate), I think it’s very important to have a clear understanding of your treatment plan and very good communication with your doctors. If you don’t have those things, and can’t get them, you may wish to consider getting new doctors if possible. If that’s not possible, all reasonable efforts with these doctors should be made.]