Today was my consultation with the Oncology Radiation Specialist. He is located in the same building as my Surgical Oncologist so he already had access to my records. He was extremely informative and knowledgeable.
He started by saying that a Stage 3A Lung Cancer such as mine would usually benefit with Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiation. But then he went on to explain that he is not recommending Radiation...yet... for me at this time.
He stated that the process is 6 weeks long - I would have to go to the hospital everyday for 6 weeks for an 8 minute zap of radiation. But the issue is that there are two main side effects. Pain and irritation in the esophagus AND when they pinpoint where on the lung to zap they need to go outside those margins a bit to make sure they get it all.
That is the real issue here. My left side has hardly any lung left so if he has to zap more around where the tumor was, he will damage what little lung I have functioning on the left side. He also felt the pain in my esophagus is not worth it at this time.
Also, he said that they don't do Radiation Therapy until Chemo was over anyway so he thinks a better plan is for me to be re-evaluated for Radiation after I complete all my cycles of Chemotherapy.
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