Health

Cancer Care

Posted at May 29, 2008 16:26

By Aja J. Junior

MILLIONS OF CANCER PATIENTS endure
six intense weeks of restlessness, fear, pain, and
loss of time during their radiation or chemotherapy
treatments. Now, those dealing with
breast cancer and its effects have options and
decreased time for radiation treatments, giving
a boost to women around Missouri for Breast
Cancer Awareness month, which is October.

Siteman Cancer Center at St. Louis is making
gains in breast cancer radiation technology.
Using the Varian Trilogy system, breast cancer
patients in the St. Louis area can cut their
radiation treatment time down to five days.

Like traditional chemotherapy treatments,
Trilogy delivers a beam of external radiation
through the skin within one millimeter of
the treatment site. Trilogy is also capable of
taking CT scans, conventional X-rays, and
three-dimensional images. It is normal for
patients to have CT scans before radiation
to determine the location of tumors.

Trilogy is a non-invasive procedure
that uses radiation through the skin to the
area where the tumor was discovered. This
treatment requires patients to have two
rounds of radiation for five days. Patients
incur slight side effects due to the
shorter time and the radiation
targeting a direct area, instead
of a larger area. To be considered
for Trilogy, candidates
must be in the early stages of
breast cancer, with no spread to
the lymph nodes.

Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at Columbia is
using MammoSite for radiation treatment.
“It makes a big difference in many women’s
lives,” says Dr. Paul Dale, chief of surgical
oncology at Ellis Fischel, who has performed
more than one hundred treatments.

As with Trilogy, women endure partial
breast radiation treatments, which would
otherwise take six weeks for whole breast
radiation treatments, twice a day for five
days. Following a lumpectomy, candidates for
MammoSite have a balloon placed within the
lump site for treatment. After a bead of radiation
is added and twelve minutes pass, a round
of treatment is complete.

Certain qualifications must be met before
a woman can receive MammoSite treatments.
She must be forty-five or older, her tumor has
to be less than three centimeters or one inch,
and she must have no evidence of lymph node
metastasis, or spreading cancer cells.

Fortunately, more than 65 percent of
women qualify as candidates for MammoSite,
and the low recurrence rate following treatment
is approximately 1.6 percent, according to
the National Registration Center.

The procedure proves safe, if not safer, than
the other radiation alternatives for women,
says Dr. Dale. No treatment comes without
its share of complications, though. Skin irritation,
chance of infection, and problems arising
from the balloon fitting the lumpectomy site
are all possible complications. However, the
complication percentage is relatively low, less
than 5 percent, Dr. Dale says.

Along with advancements in radiation
treatment, breast cancer detection seems to
be undergoing a transition to more comfortable
means. SoftScan, produced by Advanced
Research Technologies, Inc., leaves the days of
press-and-squeeze mammography behind and
gives women a reason to relax.

University of California at San Diego is testing
SoftScan technology. Lying on a table face down,
a woman’s breast is placed into immobilization
plates and through a soft, water-like pod. Using
a non-harmful laser, the device gathers an image
of the breast and potential lesions. If made available
in the United States, detection
of lumps in breasts may
become simpler and
more comfortable.

Call 573-882-
2100 or 314-
747-7222 or visit
www.ellisfischel.
org or www.siteman.
wustl.edu/
default.aspx for more
information.

Oct 2007

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