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MSK Experience - RO vs Surgeon
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Apr 13 5:36am | Replies (24)Comment receiving replies
@brianjarvis
The problem with speaking to those three people is that the RO sets up the requirements for the treatment, the dosimetrist designs the customized radiation plan for prostate cancer, determining exactly how to angle beams and distribute doses to destroy the tumor while sparing healthy tissue. They create a computer-modeled plan—including machine settings—that radiation therapists use for treatment delivery. That then goes to the RO who approves it.
So speaking to the technicians is not really useful, maybe the dosimetrist Could provide some interesting information, but the RO is really the one that approves everything they configure. The technicians don’t have any say in what’s happening other than to tell you if you have enough liquid in your bladder (another CT/computer defined amount) And if you are positioned right.
I had eight weeks of IMRT and only spoke to the RO at the very end.
I had three sessions of SBRT and again only spoke to the RO at the end.
Not sure it really makes any sense to speak to other anybody, but the RO.
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@jeffmarc I didn’t need to speak directly to the dosimetrist. I asked the RO specific questions that the dosimetrist could provide:
> the calculation of my biologic effective dose for the number of fractions I had chosen. (I had to choose from 20, 28, or 30 fractions. I wanted to see what they did with that.)
> how much radiation (with a drawing) will hit my prostate and how much would hit nearby organs?
> (there were others)
At each visit, I had a few more detailed questions. (Same for physicist-level questions.)
The RO is (basically) a generalist; he undoubtedly knows a lot about a lot of things. But, He’s like a manager at work - signs off on everything, but it’s the engineers who do the work and understand everything. I wanted the specialist’s inputs. They actually did show me planning information. I wanted to see how they calculated the dose equation for my treatments.
As for the machine settings, I asked questions about the machine itself and the settings. I doubt if the RO knows those low-level details. (At one point the RO commented that “No one asks the type questions you ask.”).
At each of my treatment sessions, I also asked the technicians similar technical questions about the setup of the machine, what the information on the monitors meant, and more; great conversation. At each of the 28 sessions, I had at least one question for them. (Sometimes they had answers; sometimes not. It was a very informative experience.)
I wanted to know exactly what was happening and how, when, and why……