I am a 64 year old woman diagnosed with Dupuytren's in the fall of 2010. A nodule had appeared in the center of my right palm and two hand specialists told me to "come back when you can't straighten your finger." I researched on this website and decided to investigate radiation therapy. I had an initial appointment with Dr. Gottschalk at UCSF and he encouraged me to opt for the radiation. He did tell me that up to that point he only had treated a few patients with the disease. But he followed the German established protocols. At the end of January I had seven treatments. By the end of February my node had flattened but seems to be about the same diameter. I've experienced some dryness of skin but other than that no other side effects. However, in the past month two new smaller nodules have popped up to the immediate left of the original nodule. And I think another is on its way. I'm discouraged by this and wonder if anyone out there has had repeated radiation treatments? I'm concerned about a cumulative effect. Thanks for any info that you might provide.

Thank you Cindy. That's interesting because they only radiated the immediate area surrounding my node. Where did you have your treatment?

I live in Independence Missouri and my doctor is in Liberty Missouri which is 20 minutes from my house. I would almost bet ya that those new ones are outside the radiated area. By having the whole hand done then you don't have to worry about it. At least thats the way i look at it. How many GY'S did he use for treatment? You would probably know if they were not treated by the drawings that the doctor put on your hands.

... as far as I can judge from my RT treatment with Prof. Seegenschmiedt in Hamburg, he used at least a 1cm additional margin to both sides of the nodules or cords and at least a 2cm margin towards the base of the hand (wrist) and towards the tip of the fingers ...

... he also mentioned something to me that on the edges of the RT fields the RT dose can be as low as only 50% of the RT dose in the center of the field as there are less secondary electrons or photons available at the rim of the RT field than in the center of the RT field; this also means that smaller RT fields receive less dose than larger RT fields.

... the RT dose is usually prescribed to just one point of the RT field which was in my case the center of the field, i.e. exactly where one would expect the highest RT dose; that may give the edges of the RT field a much lower dose !

I THINK THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT AND HAS INFLUENCE ON THE OUTCOME OF RADIATION THERAPY !

I include a graph which I found in the internet about this problem, but may be the RT specialists like Prof. Seegenschmiedt could comment more precisely on that issue ??

Edited 06/29/11 09:31

cindy850:

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I think i was misunderstood. What i meant was if your hands has DD throughout then yes the hands need to be radiated. Which both of my hands did. I have drawings on here that the doctor did before treatment and it shows where my DD is in my hands. This is not a preventive treatment - it is only used on the disease area and some what on the outer edges. Radiation puts your DD in remission.