SABR or alternative radiotherapy for stage 1 lung cancer

Hi Star68  I had the traditional radiotherapy, because SABR wasn’t a thing when I had mine. The main difference with SABR is it is more targeted. This does not mean that it will “kill” the tumour any more, just that it won’t affect the healthy tissue around the tumour in ways that traditional radiotherapy might. Rest assured that radiotherapy is a successful treatment in it’s own right. I did not have chemo, and I am on hormone therapy, but my radiotherapy was 10 years ago. 

Treatment times do vary in each person. I had 5 consecutive days of high dose radiation. I have known other people to have 4 weeks worth. The treatment itself is completely painless. It is like having an x-ray, you lay on a bed, the x-ray type machine moves around you, and it is over in minutes. The side effects vary, but they do increase as the radiation builds up in your body. The worst thing is how tired it can make you. For me the radiotherapy was definitely worth it. At the time I had a tumour blocking my airway and I was struggling to breath. By the end of the 5 days I could breath normally, and at the time of the first scan it had shrunk by 50%. Radiation continues to do its work for several months after the treatment has stopped, and by the 9 month scan it had shrunk by 75%. By the end of that 1st year it was so small they cannot get a measurement from it, but that could also be my hormone treatment helping with that. 

Wishing your dad all the very best with his treatment. Please do ask if you have any questions that I may be able to help with. 

Thanks Chelle 

My dad's been told SABR but the tumour is close to a main artery so they need to do his planning scan to make sure they can use the high level RT over the traditional.  Was yours to the lung?  Dad had radiotherapy to his prostate bed but the treatment for his prostate was much quicker and radiotherapy had finished by this time after his diagnosis.  

Sorry Chelle can I also ask did the radiotherapy get rid of your tumour or is it still there but not grown? They said this maybe a possibility.

Thank you

Star x

The tumour was in the top lobe of the right lung, but broke through into the bronchial airway. It is still there, but too small to measure. I also have tiny tumours scattered throughout both lungs. Mine is a metastatic sarcoma previously from my womb, diagnosed in the lung in 2014, so will be 11 years in September.

X 

Thank you.  Hoping for some news this week!