Latest Radiation Equipment

I am coming to the same conclusion Fauntleroy. That the machines get upgraded and will be fine, at a major cancer center.
I don’t think it would be easy to find (impossible?) a Center tht treats only PC. But the RO’s I’m working with/considering are both PC only.

Pratoman said...
I don’t think it would be easy to find (impossible?) a Center tht treats only PC. But the RO’s I’m working with/considering are both PC only.

The machines cost far too much to specialize in one kind of cancer. The machines are designed to treat all cancer types. I had a friend years ago who was a field engineer for Varian and his job was to go to the various sites in his area and do routine maintenance, upgrades, and repairs. You don't have a machine of that cost just sitting there and getting old - new parts, upgrades, new software, are all apart of keeping a multi-million dollar machine operating. It's not like a cell phone where you buy a new one ever two years.

I'm going to keep saying this - the machine isn't the important part, it's the team running it - the RO, physicist, technicians, nurses, etc.

Andrew

It seems pretty clear that no major cancer center that treats a lot of recurrent PCa is going to use substandard equipment that would compromise patient outcomes. I agree with Andrew that the main patient consideration is the quality of the treatment team. Other considerations, given the length of treatment (5 days a week for ca. 8 weeks), are convenience to where one lives -- convenience meaning also big $$ if it involves a long commute or renting a room nearby -- and comfort. The TrueBeam works fast -- from the moment I lay down on the "couch" till the moment I got up was 7-8 minutes -- easy to hold still that long.

I did a little checking and found that a used Varian TrueBeam or RapidArc can be purchased for around 1.5 million dollars (sometimes as low as 750K).

I was thinking that if we all pooled our lunch money, we could buy one of our own.

any takers?

Andrew

Prat's a moderator???

did I miss an announcement?

Saipan Paradise said...
It seems pretty clear that no major cancer center that treats a lot of recurrent PCa is going to use substandard equipment that would compromise patient outcomes. I agree with Andrew that the main patient consideration is the quality of the treatment team. Other considerations, given the length of treatment (5 days a week for ca. 8 weeks), are convenience to where one lives -- convenience meaning also big $$ if it involves a long commute or renting a room nearby -- and comfort. The TrueBeam works fast -- from the moment I lay down on the "couch" till the moment I got up was 7-8 minutes -- easy to hold still that long.

All you say makes sense Rich. I’m guessing that the info I git on the “EX-1’mwas errant. I will surely find out . I’m inclined to switch to the suburban location. Going to contact the NYC location Nd ask the radonc nurse to find out for me.

Or crazier.