Patient journey through radiation therapy:
Many patients think that radiation therapy is a laser device that simply involves the patient coming to the clinic and entering the treatment room to have the tumor destroyed!
Accuracy, certainty and quality standards are the most important rules for giving treatment. The patient starts in the clinic, where the doctor explains to him the reasons for the treatment, its method, goals, and symptoms. After the patient or one of his relatives signs the consent for treatment, The doctor requests a CT scan (different from a diagnostic one) and before that he may need to complete some examinations and preparations before performing the CT scan (such as an MRI, And to conduct a dental or hearing examination in the case of head and neck tumors, for example…) and also to make a referral to other specialties if necessary, such as oncology, if the patient needs chemotherapy, surgery, or other.
The number of sessions and the method of treatment are determined according to specific protocols and the evaluation of the patient’s condition by the attending physician. Every patient is different from the other, even if they have the same diagnosis. The patient, his condition, the type and stage of the disease, the location and size of the tumor, and other matters are what determine the treatment method and the number of sessions. Increasing the number of sessions is not necessarily better. It does not always mean that the disease is in advanced stages if there are more sessions.
