Jees....They have a program that puts you under radiaton for 5 days...2 days
rest....5 days......2 days rest...5 weeks
I would not be very happy.
Since he is already going through this radiation process, and with a certain
hospital, I cannot imagine him changing horses in the middle of the race.
I would, complain, and stick with the hospital you have.
Talk to the Dr. that is prescribing radiation, and ask him about the machine
failure, and the missing time.....
Good wishes...machine failure happens...
Do they have a backup?
what is the seriousness of your father missing the treatments as
prescribed.?
I would consult the Dr. responsible first.
Then make a decision after that.
So Sorry....John Loomis down below.....

My understanding is that it is important not to allow too much time
to pass between treatments so that the cancer cells don't have
much time to recover.

On the other hand some time between treatments is desirable to
give the non-cancer cells time to recover.

Whether the conventional 5 days on plus 2 days off is really the
optimum, or whether it just fits the work week of patients and staff, is
a question I've always wondered about.  In my case, my treatment
fell over the Christmas holidays and so I got no treatment on the
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Christmas weekend,
and no treatment on New Year's day.

For that matter, is 24 hours the optimum time between treatments?
Or is it 17 hours, 31.6 hours, or some other odd period of time?

You can ask the rad onc about this.  My guess is that neither he
nor anyone else really knows for sure what the exact optimum times
are, and whether 5+2 is better than what your Dad is getting or not.

I speculate that the treatment your Dad is getting is pretty close to
the same effectiveness as if the machine did not break, but I
really don't know.  I hope your doctor does know, and I hope he
will be honest with you rather than just cover over the problem on
the theory that he can't do anything about it anyway.

You might also ask the doctor about the possibility of makeup time
during weekends.

   Alan

_________

I finished up last Aug. 10, and the course of treatment was extended
from 42 days to 48 days to make up for the time the machine was down
over the summer.  I was told -- and believed the doc who is quite good
-- that the occasional erratic schedule didn't hurt anything.  In
fact, I was pleased to have occasional extended recuperative time.
Those machines, big as they are, are rather delicate and get hard use.
I wouldn't worry about it.

Marshall

Thank you all for the replies.

My dad complained to the hospital yesterday and today and they transferred
him to a different hospital in the city. He had a radiation treatment there
and they were nice enough to tell him to come back again if there are any
problems again.

Sometimes complaining works....

Thank you all for your insights. They are very much appreciated. They eased
my and my dad's mind.

Gordan

Good heavens, what hospital is that?  I'm scheduled to have my radiation at
Princess Margaret here in Toronto in about two weeks.