Anova Cancer Care’s Chief Oncologist was invited to the Annual Academic Meeting of Radiation Oncology Oct. 29 in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. During the meeting he discussed Anova’s CyberKnife technology and prostate cancer treatment, as well as Anova experience treating more than 1,000 prostate cancer patients with CyberKnife stereotactic body radiation therapy.
Anova is a proud sponsor of the 2015 Don’t Fear the Finger golf outing benefitting the Please Save Another (PSA) foundation and those struggling with stage 4 prostate cancer.
What: Fifth Annual Don’t Fear the Finger golf outing
When: September 10, 2015
About: The annual fundraiser is dedicated to all the men (and their families) who face or will face prostate cancer. The event is organized by Please Save Another, a 501(C)(3) volunteer foundation.
The standard for treating brain metastases back in 1954 was whole brain radiation therapy. The intent of whole brain radiation therapy is to help deal with cancer that spread to the brains by treating the whole brain, all of it, with radiation.
When I trained in the ’80s, whole brain radiation remained the standard of care for brain metastases. I observed that the effects of the treatment were often worse than the disease itself with respect to the patient’s quality of life. Patients always had moderate to severe problems with brain function after treatment.
How bad was it? Let’s say if they could balance their checkbook prior to treatment, they weren’t likely to be able to after. Other negative effects included memory problems, being able to understand, and other changes in how they were able to think and do things prior to treatment.
The benefit of the treatment was that the patients could live a few months longer…but I always thought, and still think, that the downside was very significant.
Learn about Brain Cancer treatment options
Fifty years later the standard for treating brain metastases is still whole brain radiation. What? How can this be true with all the advances in medical science over the last 50 years? How can this be true when treating brain metastases, using radiosurgical techniques with CyberKnife and other machines, is readily available?
According to the Wall Street Journal article, “Cancer Radiation Questioned,” 200,000 patients with brain metastases are subjected to whole-brain radiation therapy for brain metastases each year. Doctors at MD Anderson have recently investigated the outcomes after using whole brain radiation and…. surprise! They found a negative impact on brain function that was “more than they expected!”
This is not the first group of doctors who studied problem and found whole brain radiation an unsatisfactory treatment option for patients with brain metastases who were doing well otherwise — responding to other treatments, and would live for months or years if not for the brain metastases.
What alternatives are there? As I have said, treating brain metastases with radiosurgical techniques, such as with CyberKnife and other machines, is readily available and is not associated with the consequences of whole brain radiation.
I have helped hundreds of patients enjoy control of their brain metastases and excellent quality of life with respect to brain function for years while working with their team of physicians and keeping the cancer in other parts of their body in check.
However, to be fair, there are some patients for whom whole brain radiation could be the right treatment, and I do recommend it for those few patients that I consider it to be the best treatment option.
The treatment of brain metastases is another one of the many areas where radiosurgical treatment with the CyberKnife excels, and if you’re reading this, know that the procedure is available today for patients who have brain metastases.
Make it your mission to not let someone you love or know become one of the 200,000 casualties of over-treatment with whole brain radiation every year.
A ZeroCancer news roundup highlights the latest clinical trial study following the Registry for Prostate Cancer Radiosurgery, launched in July 2010, which follows the overall treatment effectiveness of CyberKnife for prostate cancer. The Frontiers in Oncology study, which includes Anova Cancer Care patients, follows more than 2,700 men from 45 participating locations. The study reported that CyberKnife treatment was effective in treating prostate cancer as well as preserving sexual health with no significant side effects.
The study, “Large Prostate Volumes Treated With Autonomous Continuous Image Guidance Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy For Prostate Cancer,” was presented during a joint meeting of the American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO) and the Radiosurgery Society (RSS) meeting held May 14-16 in Washington, D.C.
With all the recent changes taking place with regard to healthcare reform and cost, you might consider Anova Cancer Care the “poster child” for healthcare reform. Anova Cancer Care specializes in CyberKnife, a new radiosurgery procedure that uses targeted radiation to eradicate cancer cells. Since the procedure is new, there are many insurers who aren’t reimbursing individuals for this treatment.
Confident about CyberKnife success and how the technology can help cancer patients, Anova physicians worked diligently to make it available and cost efficient for patients.