Another Hurdle
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, oncologists do not administer RIT. Instead, they must refer their patients to nuclear medicine physicians or to radiation oncologists who do administer it, but by referring patients to these other physicians, they lose income that they would otherwise receive from treatment which is administered in their offices, namely chemotherapy and Rituxan. As if this weren't enough to discourage doctors from using RIT, oncologists must also take 300 hours of classroom training in order to be able to prescribe it - and how many oncologists have the equivalent of 7-1/2 forty-hour work weeks to devote to training on one treatment?
I'm at a loss to explain why this training is required for RIT since oncologists routinely refer patients for external beam radiation when that is appropriate.
Given the financial and training hurdles that oncologists face in using RIT, it's no wonder that it has not been widely embraced. All the studies in the world mean nothing if a drug does not fit into the business of medicine, and unfortunately for patients, we must remember that medicine is a for-profit business. Sad, but true.
In order for the countless patients who could benefit from RIT to do so, changes must be made to encourage doctors to use this very powerful, very effective drug. In the meantime, all we can do is to continue to seek doctors who do use it.
Betsy