A question about my friend's cancer treatment

[Syrinx]

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR MEDICAL ADVICE.

It's really a friend. I promise.

A friend of mine recently found out that he has a small tumor in his lung.

My friend went through a maze of doctors, until he finally found himself on the doorstep of an actual oncologist.

That doctor prescribed a series of 30 radiation treatments over six weeks, and four chemotherapy sessions over the same time frame.

He then sent my friend to the radiation specialist, who he said would be my friend's "most important doctor."

The most important doctor canceled the chemo, and told my friend about a new type of radiation therapy, that will only require three to six sessions, as opposed to thirty.

He also said that my friend will feel like "going out to eat" after each session.

I don't want to get into gory details, or anything. But I'm wondering if anyone knows about this new kind of radiation treatment.

Maybe it's old hat in some parts of the country, but I'm in Alabama. And it was at a county-owned hospital.

Thanks.

[Raven]

1. It may be proton radiation therapy. A friend of mine just had this

treatment for lung cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Your friend should GET A SECOND OPINION!!!

[Syrinx]

2. thanks

Is your friend happy with it so far? Or is it too early to tell?

[Flaxbee]

3. I second having a second opinion - there have been

many changes in treatment over the last few years, so what was 'standard practice' now necessarily isn't. A very close friend has had cancer twice - once in 1997, once in 2007; the drs. told her if they'd diagnosed her first cancer in 2007 they would have treated her entirely differently than they did in 1997. Not entirely comforting, but medicine continues to evolve.


edited for clarity