Topics:
Head and Neck Cancers • Radiation Oncology • Gastrointestinal Cancers • Thoracic Malignancies • Medical Oncology
How do you time same-day chemotherapy and radiation for patients undergoing concurrent chemoRT?
For the first treatment day (during combined chemo/XRT courses), is it ok to give XRT first then send the patient for chemo or should the chemo be given first? What about Day #2 (assuming a multiple day chemo regimen?)? What about continuous 5FU (turn on a Monday and turn toff on Friday)?
Which of these timings are (if any) critical? It might be easier to treat with XRT first since it's shorter and more predictable, but is that the right thing to do?
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution
When possible we try to deliver chemo prior to RT. Probably makes more sense for oral drugs given daily than IV drugs weekly (or less often). We do have a hard and fast rule that CRT starts on M/T/W but not Thursday or Friday. In head and neck cancers, if the patient gets RT first and chemo starts l...
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution
I don’t think that the precise timing matters.
Thank you. Sometimes the medical oncologist, due t...
I don't know where the one hour capecitabine timin...
I appreciate the input - it is a great discussion ...