Effects of interruption of radiation therapy ?

I just had a look at my calendar, I took off one day. Originally I tried to take a Fri and Mon off for travel over a weekend. The doc made some faces about it but said it wasn't really a big deal. To minimize he gave me the last treatment time available on my return day which I took, this left me with only missing one treatment. So, it became a three day break, the Fri and the weekend which was always a break for me.

I got the sense that any more than one or two days is a problem. My issue may have been exacerbated by the fact that it was adding to a break period anyway, weekend.

We were in the planning stage for fiducials, SpaceOAR, and then radiation treatments. I had a three week trip coming up in a few weeks, so the RO decided to delay everything until I returned. I’m not sure if this was for a medical reason or convenience.

One year ago I did 39 sessions of IMRT. The second week the machine broke down for 2 days in conjunction with the Memorial day weekend.
So 5 days missed. There was no indication that it had any negative results.
Good luck

solmank: This is a question that is best asked of your radiation treatment providers. There are normal intervals without radiation such as weekends without radiation while undergoing 30+ proton radiation treatments. However, too long an interval may be detrimental. Talk to your providers

My mridian linac 5 sessions ended in February. They treated me on Tuesdays and Thursdays until I was done.

Why don't you just ask your RO to postpone the start of treatment until after you return from your trip?

I should add it was two Tuesdays and Thursdays and one Friday.

Certainly possible. Just gathering information for now.
Thanks.

I’m sure there’s some weird study somewhere about the effects of starting and stopping radiation treatment, I’m not aware of one. I do know that fractions are cumulative and the way it kills cancer cells is the slow build up of radiation that damages cell DNA. Stopping in the middle would allow cells to recover faster and minimize the effects of treatment. I would guess it might be okay to take a break from treatment for a couple of days, but why risk it?

The wiser course would be to complete the treatment plan as scheduled to maximize the benefits of radiation to the target area.

I’m not a Radiologist so I don’t know these things myself but definitely something you should talk with your care team about.