rads?

[carter]

i know that i have seen some information before - so please excuse me if i ask a repeat question. 

during my follow up visit with CK dr, i asked "how much radiation was given?  and how does this compare to chest xrays or waht my wife may have gotten during her fight with breast cancer four years ago".

he said that i recieved 700 rads for 3 days or a total of 2100.  he tried to explain things, but none struck me as making sense.  can someone help me relate to just how much radiation this is?


does it make any difference that the radiation is generated in teh head of the machine rather than flowing from a radiative element?

i still am happy with the decision --- just wanting to know more about the treatment ..

thansk in advance for any help in understanding.


carter

[Vivian B.]

Hi Carter,

I have been doing some research myself regarding radiation. The amount of radiation given for ANs depends on the size of the tumor and how much is required to stop the growth. From what I gather, it is a precise type of radiation given specifically to the area affected and not destroying any good cells around the AN. Overall my understanding is that depending on what condition you are treating the amount of radiation is different in every case. Do you know if your radiation had good results?

Vivian

[sgerrard]

Hey Carter,

I think what you mean by "flowing from a radiative element" is the radiation that covers a wide area, such as for a chest x-ray and form some kinds of cancer treatments. CK (and GK as FSR) are quite different from that. They use multiple thin beams of radiation coming from many different directions. CK and FSR move the head around, shooting beams from different angles; GK has a fixed arrangement of 201 beams. Where the beams converge, i.e. your AN, they deliver a high dose of radiation. Where they do not, the dose is much lower. It is kind of like being on a stage, and having a bunch of spotlights focused on you (for the AN, that is).

That does make quite a difference in reducing exposure for anything else besides the tumor. You can't really compare dose levels to the other kind of radiation treatment, which is sometimes called radiotherapy. The dose at the AN is high, but not anywhere else in your head or body.

Roughly speaking, 1 Gray (Gy) is equal to 100 Rads, so your dose could also be stated as 3 times 7 Gy, which is typical of CK.

Hope that helps.

Steve