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Has anyone gone through the 30gy DART therapy, what is recovery like?
Head & Neck Cancer | Last Active: 3 days ago | Replies (21)Comment receiving replies
@jfh1970
Hi ,
Could you tell us a little more please ?
How many chemo cycles and how many radiation treatments did you end up having ?
Was the blood test the NavDx test from Nevaris which detects circulating tumor DNA ?
Curious because I am in treatment now with the same T2N1M0 P16+ tonsil diagnosis and
have now had 2 chemo cycles and 16 radiation sessions, thinking hard about stopping treatments this week.
Thanks !
Replies to "@jfh1970 Hi , Could you tell us a little more please ? How many chemo cycles..."
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@woodsy1
Two weeks Cisplatin, then four more weeks of CarboTaxol (the former was damaging my hearing so we switched)
28 total proton beam sessions for a total of 56 Gy.
Yes, NavDX test prior to treatment and then again at about 4.5 weeks. Came back at zero allowing me to stop treatment at six weeks of proton/chemo instead of the standard eight (per the DART 2.0 trial design).
I did not have surgery first as my lymph node spread was extensive and up against my carotid artery.
Strongly suggest you continue treatment as long as possible. Best to go through this only once. Also, if it spreads to your lungs (as this diagnosis typically does) it will be considered incurable and further treatment will only be to extend life. We are lucky that P-16+ SCC is exceptionally sensitive to this method of treatment.
Again, good luck. Hang in there!