Northwestern University in Chicago is the world leader, followed by Denmark, in SBRT radiation treatment of certain lung cancers (I can say for adenocarcinoma this is true), often combined with chemo + immunotherapy, if patient has compatible genetic markers and it's suitable.
Having local radiation center seemed more appealing and convenient than periodic 5-day stays 3-4 hours away in another state.
But learning late in the game that the local radiation technique was not repeatable (deemed too dangerous), and a dangerous reaction to the gold standard class of immunotherapy drugs was ruled out, NW was contacted and treatment was initiated. SBRT is much more focused than what was available locally (which was still standard-of-care) and often repeatable. Progress was made, but it was very advanced at that point. They have their own proprietary equipment and AI-profiling for the radiation. We did not know such a thing existed until we did our own research. In hindsight, we wish we had chosen the inconvenience of treatment in another state. They also do proton (vs. x-ray) radiation at a location a little further west of Chicago, if appropriate. Proton radiation was not recommended in our case.
It was unfortunately too far advanced with chemo complications (out of viable options) for my family member who could not endure the travel and made the difficult decision to go into hospice care. It would not have been a guaranteed success but I wish we knew the difference between options earlier. It was in-network, luckily for us.
If insurance cooperates, it's worth considering the best option you can as early as possible.
Another advantage of a high-performing university medical environment is you typically don't wait 10 days to schedule and 3 weeks to get results where a radiation center is shared by multiple communities and there is said to be a local shortage of radiologists to read the scans. Same day - two days for scheduling and 2-3 days for results in academic hospital (this one). The dept. head commented the local option scheduling was comparatively pre-historic' (opinion only).
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