Today Rachel had an appointment with the radiation oncologist, followed by a “CT simulation” needed to prepare for the start of her radiation treatments. Radiation treatments will start on May 15, run for 5 weeks, 5 days a week. She will need at least 5 weeks of recovery from the radiation, then surgery.

During surgery, a radiation oncologist will place a radioactive iodine plaque directly on the dura (outer covering) of her spinal cord for about 6 minutes. This radiation oncologist actually pioneered this technique; very few other hospitals are using this technique for spinal tumors. There is a chance that the dura will tear during surgery, in which case they won’t be able to use the plaque treatment (and won’t be able to go in at a later time to do it either.) The doctors think there are cancer cells directly on the dura of her spinal cord, so we are certainly hoping that they are able to do the treatment.

They will do pathology tests after surgery to determine what percentage of cancer cells are still viable, which will indicate how responsive her cancer has been to the chemo and radiation. Doctors will determine how much radiation and chemo she will need after surgery based on the pathology results. They are estimating 2 more weeks of radiation after she’s recovered from surgery.