Elrundir

But her risk of kidney cancer is halved.

The world isn't safe, so why should your home be?

Radiation therapist here! (Or therapeutic radiographer as you'd know them.)

We don't have many proton therapy centres in Canada and certainly none where I live and work, so I've always been curious about them! How long are the treatments generally? (In terms of total time on the bed, or the radiation treatment portion itself, whatever you happen to know.)

Also, since you're nearing the end of your treatment, have you noticed much by way of side effects? I'm curious how this might differ for such a precise form of treatment compared to conventional radiation.

Good luck!

Yeah, that sounds like a list of questions you'd ask in the US, but in other parts of the world it doesn't work that way. First of all the patient certainly doesn't pay. Second of all the cost of the treatment itself is not really a factor as the government (most likely) isn't going to pay for the cost of a treatment that isn't a standard of care, so you can't just "upsell" to the most expensive possible option. And even if you could, there's no real reason for it because the doctors aren't directly compensated in that way (they receive pay for the cases they handle of course, but it's not as simple as "these patients received treatments that cost $X, here is your commission").

Basically patient care is not as deserving of such skepticism in a lot of the world. You will have all the options explained to you, the pros and cons will be discussed, you will be informed if you need to travel a long distance to receive a better standard of care (and there may even be assistance programs to help cover the cost of travel and housing for the duration of your treatment; there certainly are here in Canada), and there really is very little incentive for the doctor to "push" something that isn't going to benefit you because there's no benefit for them either.

Also, speaking as a radiation therapist (or therapeutic radiographer as we'd be known in the UK), if proton therapy is at all an option for your cancer, it is probably the best option at least from a radiation standpoint. It is probably the most precise form of radiotherapy currently available.