Hi All,
Picked this report up from the murkey depths of aol. Thought it might be
of interest if it is available to you where you are at. Gotta go. Start
chemo and radiation tomorrow.
Dave Dixon
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From: Eliphes <Eliphes@aol.com>
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Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 13:53:18 EST
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From: DDixon5723 <DDixon5723@aol.com>
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Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 10:33:26 EST
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CHICAGO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Proton beams originally designed for use in nuclear
physics research have proven effective in curing several types of cancer while
leaving surrounding tissues unharmed, studies released on Wednesday said.
Proton beams -- produced by particle accelerators called cyclotrons or
synchrotrons -- have produced better results than conventional radiation
treatment against advanced cancers of the prostate, bone and eye, researchers
told the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
The advantage of proton beam technology over conventional radiation is its
accuracy, the researchers said.
``A uniform radiation dose can be delivered across the tumor while at the same
time delivering zero dose to the healthy tissue on the far side of the
target,'' explained Herman Suit, chair of radiation oncology at Harvard
Medical School in Boston.
``In contrast, the photon beams, used in standard radiation therapy, lose
their energy as they pass through the body, so that the dose is maximum near
the surface and decreases through the entire thickness of the body,'' he said.
A study of 645 men with prostate cancer at Loma Linda University in California
found proton beam therapy was as effective as surgical removal of the prostate
in curing the cancers four years after treatment.
An added benefit to patients who underwent proton beam therapy was that only a
small number suffered incontinence, compared to 40 percent of those who
underwent the surgery.
Proton beam treatment of a type of cancer that attacks the base of the skull
was effective for 92 percent of 180 patients, compared to about half of
patients treated with standard radiation therapy, doctors at three
Massachusetts facilities said.
And in 2,100 patients with uveal melanoma -- cancer of the eye -- local
control of the disease was achieved in 96 percent of patients and the overall
results were equivalent to patients whose cancerous eyes were surgically
removed, researchers said.
The proton beam technique also has been used effectively against lung cancer
and to cure a common, noncancerous cause of blindness -- macular degeneration
-- where blood vessels proliferate beneath the retina.
As to the price of providing proton beam technology to health centers, Dr.
Suit said: ``The incremental cost to society would be relatively small.''
In other presentations at the radiologists' meeting, researchers from the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Washington University in St. Louis
praised another relatively new technology used in cancer treatment -- positron
emission tomography (PET).
PET measures the biochemistry of living tissue. Patients can be injected with
a glucose labeled with a radioactive tracer that is then taken up by cells
where the cancerous infection is active.
PET is widely used in Europe to determine if a cancer has spread before a
patient undergoes surgery, and has been effective in detecting whether cancer
treatments are working. REUTERS
01:28 12-04-97
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