Planning and CT scan appointment

What to expect during your radiotherapy planning appointment at ESNEFT

Your first appointment is usually a treatment planning appointment.

When you arrive, a radiographer will take you into a clinic room and explain the procedure to you and answer any questions.

We may ask you to sign a consent form to say that you agree to have radiotherapy (only if you have not already done so).

Your treatment is carefully planned and tailored precisely to you and it is often necessary to use different types of equipment to support you.

Planning your treatment involves your oncology doctor or specialist radiographer deciding exactly on the area to be treated.

This may involve the oncology doctor or radiographer drawing marks directly on your skin or you may require a CT planning scan for a more complex procedure.

A CT scan (Opens in a new window) enables the oncology doctor to plan your treatment as precisely as possible.

A small number of patients may also need to have a planning MRI scan (Opens in a new window) or PET scan (Opens in a new window).

What to wear for all your radiotherapy appointments

We need you to be in exactly the same position for your planning scan and for your treatment appointments.

It may be helpful for you to wear clothes that are easily removed, including slip-on shoes or slippers. We may also ask you to change into a gown and remove your shoes.

Planning your radiotherapy treatment

In the CT room, we will help you to get into the correct treatment position.  This should be as comfortable as possible, so please talk to us.  This is important as this will be your position not only for the scan (20 to 30 minutes) but also for treatment (15 to 20 minutes).

Although we may need to remove your gown, we will cover you up as much as possible and we will respect your dignity and privacy.

The radiographers will draw some small marks on your skin, these help to ensure accuracy of your daily treatment.  With your permission, these marks will be turned into tiny permanent tattoos after the scan is complete.

The information and measurements we take from the CT planning session are used by our planning team to produce a treatment plan that is tailored to you.  The planning usually takes one to three weeks.

Your final treatment plan will be decided by your doctor and they will discuss it with you.

There are a range of treatment options we can use at ESNEFT:

• 3 D Conformal
• Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)
• RapidArc
• Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR)
• Superficial and Orthovoltage
• Brachytherapy

To help with the accurate delivery of your treatment the radiographers can also use:

• Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT)
• 6 Degrees of freedom couch
• Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH)
• Abdominal Compression
• Rectal Spacer
• Immobilisation