Gail, I hope he is willing to contribute. I also hope my comment was not taken as harsh. I worry about the many people that come here and read these posts daily. What I watch for is information that may either worry them (for no good reason) or lead to a misunderstanding. As I said in an earlier post, the RO is the one that needs to make these judgments. I am rather sure that an IMRT system could be programmed to deliver the same amount and coverage as a non-IMRT machine. In the real world they probably wouldn't do that because of the time and expense of programming. It is much more simple to use traditional XRT to cover a wide field. In addition, I would make an educated guess that the actual treatment time in the machine is faster with XRT. This means more patients per day and that means lower cost. (Or higher revenue). There are many of these older machines still installed that probably means they are going to be used.

The original post was to question if IMRT was preferred over XRT. The bottom line, I think, is that it IS preferred IF the RO running it believes so. Several of the subsequent posts seem to call into question the efficacy of one over the other. That is where the RO needs to be relied on not us. The only thing we should do is provide awareness of options.

I have a concern when a local Doc sends someone to a local RO to have XRT when IMRT might be available regionally. This kind of thing does happen and will probably result in worse, permanent side effects for the patient. That someone elects to have XRT in the end because of confidence, convenience or cost is certainly up to them. That is where multiple opinions and consultations are needed.

You might have guessed that this is my personal story. I was treated with XRT locally, IMRT was probably available regionally, and I was totally unaware of the option. As a result I do have serious long term side effects that I would not wish upon anyone. I do not know if I could have had IMRT and I do not want to sound like I feel my RO didn't do a good job. In fact I think he did an outstanding job. Just the same, I wish I knew then what I know now. That is the kind of advocacy I hope to provide others.