Good Morning All,
Just received this from a friend. Thought this article may be of some
value to you as well.
Hi Marty -
There was an article in our local newspaper--Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle--about this new instrument that the Univ. of Roch. will soon
be
using in their cancer center.
You will see the info refers to using this instr. with breast, lung
and
prostate caner. I called a few hours ago to see if they would also be
using
this with ovarian cancer. The office staff did not know, but said they
would check with the doctor and get back to me.
15 min. later I got a call from Dr. Sandhu, who is one of the
doctors
involved with this technology. He said that they would be using it with
ovarian cancer, unless the cancer was "diffused". I asked if me meant
that
they would not be able to use it if the cancer was in more than one
area,
but he said, "No, they can treat different areas, but not if the cancer
had
really spread out."
Don't know if this would be anything you might want to investigate
further. But, if you do, you could call Dr. Sandhu at 716-275-5575.
That's
the office, and they would be able to put you in touch with him. He
seemed
very nice and eager to be of assistance.
Hugs to you Both -
Suzanne
UR to use precise radiation
on cancer
Improved radiosurgery will pinpoint sick cells,
leaving the healthy tissue unharmed
By Corydon Ireland
Democrat and Chronicle
(Mar. 13, 2000) -- As early as this
May, the University of Rochester
Cancer Center will house the world's
first surgery unit that uses precision
radiation to kill tumors in the soft
tissue of internal organs.
"Radiosurgery" is already widely
used to attack tumors in the brain.
The skull can be bolted in place on a
table, so killer radiation beams
strike cranial cancer targets with
sub-millimeter precision.
But tumors that grow in soft tissues elude
accurate
targeting. Soft
tissue shapes slosh and move about and are altered
even by the subtle
movement of breathing.
Improved imaging software and technology will soon
allow Rochester
surgeons to shape a cluster of X-ray radiation
beams
to the odd
contours of a tumor -- leaving healthy tissue
untouched. Precision will be
measured in the width of a few hundred cells.
"I've been waiting to do this for a decade," said
Dr.
Paul Okunieff,
professor and chairman of radiation oncology at
the
University of
Rochester Medical Center.
He, other physicians and technicians are
developing
radiation surgery
protocols for cancers of the colon, breast and
prostate -- three sites that
account for a third of all cancers in the United
States. The standards will
be ready by fall.
And they're widening brain surgery protocols to
include, for the first time,
the delicate and flexible spinal cord.
"This (new technology) will have the greatest
impact
on prostate, breast
and colon cancer as anything we've done in 20
years,"
said Okunieff,
who came to Rochester two years ago from the
National
Institutes of
Health, where he had been head of radiation
oncology
research. "It will
take the world by storm."
And the new device will also improve radiosurgery
of
the brain, said Dr.
Robert J. Maciunas, professor and chair of
neurosurgery at the UR
Medical Center.
"The old solutions were rigid --
mechanically-based,
not
information-based," he said. "This is infinitely
more
precise, infinitely
more accurate, more effective and safer."
Conventional radiosurgery focuses cylindrical
beams on
a tumor, killing
cancers with a series of cookie-shaped shots.
"Circles are fine -- if your tumor's a circle,"
said
Okunieff. But most
tumors are oddly shaped.
A variation of the new ultra-precision technology
--
developed by a
Munich, Germany, firm called BrainLAB -- has been
used
at UCLA for
brain surgery since 1996.
The new shaped beam surgery technique is a unified
array of video
cameras, linear accelerator, precision table and
ultrasound devices. A
radiologist, seated at a computer console scans
the
patient, draws the
tumor shape and matches an ultrasound picture with
real-time images.
The computer is so sensitive, it knows where the
skin
is supposed to be
-- and can shut radiation beams on and off with
the
rhythm of a patient's
breathing.
Shaped beam radiation surgery is intended to
supplement, not replace,
conventional cancer treatments.
"The intention is a one-two punch," said Okunieff.
Chemotherapy can kill invisible cancer cells.
Radiation kills cancer cells
that can be seen. And surgery takes care of large
tumor masses.
During shaped beam radiosurgery, the patient is
positioned on a carbon
fiber table that can be swung in an 180-degree arc
and
moved up and
down with precision down to 100 microns -- just
over
the width of a
human hair.
Five digital cameras mounted on the walls keep an
electronic eye on the
patient.
The cameras are so precisely positioned that they
must
be re-calibrated
every day. Snow on the roof, or any change in
outdoor
temperature, can
microscopically alter the contours of a room.
During a 10-minute treatment, a heavy linear
accelerator mounted on a
precision gantry, or frame, rotates in an arc over
the
patient. Weight has
been trimmed off the front to reduce distortions
caused by subtle flexing
in the metal.
"It's like taking a 2-ton car, and pivoting it
with
tenth-of-a-millimeter
accuracy," said Maciunas.
X-ray beams are dispensed in pulses of radiation
through a robotically
controlled series of 80 leaf-like lead screens.
The killer X-ray beams can also be turned on and
off
like a high-speed
light switch, in intervals of 30 milliseconds.
"You're limited by your creativity -- that's it,"
said
Okunieff. He calls the
new technique "painting" tumors with radiation
doses.
The BrainLAB device, which will cost about $3
million
to install, may one
day have cheaper, off-the-shelf variants that
Okunieff
predicts will
"change health care."
God Bless YOu all,
marty auslander
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