December 2002
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| Vol. 1, No. 10 |
December 2002 |
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Jerry Bylander, Editor jerryby@texoma.net |
FEATURE ARTICLES
| The Managing Director's Column |
To our members and friends. I recently heard from an individual, and who was referred to me by our last speaker. He had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and he told me after talking a while that his Gleason score was a 6. I then was able to reassure him that his cancer had a very high probability of being cured. And even if it wasn't cured, he still could plan on a long pain free life. He stated that since he is middle aged, he is quite concerned about his quality of life. Our program chair is also young, and has faced and dealt with many of my caller's concerns, so I referred him to Henri. Also Henri could give him our kit for newly diagnosed patients. This sort of help is what our network is all about--clueing in others about their options and available treatments. As those of you who already have been diagnosed know, this sort of support can really reduce the stress of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. See you at our next meeting. Dr. Jerry Bylander is the Managing Director of USToo! Texoma |
| Next Meeting: TBD |
Date and Time: Tuesday, January 21,
2003 6:30 pm - Social Hour 7:00 pm - Program
Location: TBA
Topic:
TBA
Speaker: TBA
| The meeting is free to all attendees. The doctor also will take a few minutes at the end to discuss what prostate cancer treatments he sees coming down the pike. The doctor will remain afterwards to discuss your particular questions. Also, members who have had radiation, brachiotomy, or radical prostatectomies will be available to discuss their outcomes with you. |
| Other Important Events |
Your organization's meetings listed here. Contact the Editor at jerryby@texoma.net |
| Editor's Notes |
Random thoughts from your editor MD Anderson: How to combat
fatigue M.D. Anderson: Dr. Truett's suggestions on how to combat fatigue (taken at the MD Anderson Network meeting in October) First he tells us to recognize when and that we are fatigued. This can be a special problem for cancer patients. Then describe to yourself the times when fatigue is most troubling and evaluate what helps. Conserve your energy
Simplify your life. Ed: I hope this advice will be helpful to you. Have you heard about cryosurgery? I recently asked my doctor at MD Anderson, Dr. Babaian, about it, and he spoke favorably of it. It is a method similar to brachytherapy or seeds. The local people that do it are CryoCarePCA in Arlington. I know nothing about them, but they recently offered to do a program. The therapy itself is one of inserting 6 cold probes into the prostate, and an ultrasound imager in the rectum and a warm probe into the urethra to avoid urethral damage. The advantage of the method is that the probes can be moved to all parts of the cancer during the treatment. The initial ice ball is formed to kill the adjacent cancer, then the probe is moved. The procedure is new, and data is for only three years, but low Gleason score patients have almost 100% cures (as Dr. Babaian says, "there are no 100% results in medicine"). Think about it. Many of you have called my attention to the article in the give-away magazine Cure (Fall 2002, p. 26) that somehow we receive through the mail. As you have reported and I found, it is an excellent review of prostate cancer by a woman, Catherine Grillo. If you don't have a copy, ask a friend. Unfortunately, the advanced treatment is limited to hormone treatment, and as you know it has side effects of muscle loss, bone loss, weight gain, hot flashes, and breast growth. Our hope is that some cures for those not cured now will be soon be coming down the pike, such as vaccination and gene therapy. Vaccination works by taking some of your cancer and teaching the immune system to respond. Gene therapy replaces the defective gene (three kinds, so far, have been identified) with a good one. One can only hope, and perhaps write one's congressperson to keep the dollars flowing for research. Those of you who attended our (Man-to-Man) radiation meeting at TMC, where we got the grand tour and education about treatment methods, know that TMC has guided beam therapy and wants to get IMRT apparatus. The IMRT modulates the treatment so that adjacent structures get less damage. Of course the providers neglect to explain the side effects which include somewhat uncontrollable bowels and urinary pain. Apparently MD Anderson has the only the only IMRT capability in the state. There are some drawbacks to treatment in Houston. Should I choose to irradiate the bed, since my cancer is growing, I would need to spend seven, 5-day weeks getting a 900 tissue Rad (Grays?) radiation dose a week. Also MD Anderson is hiring new people to better understand and develop radiation therapies (ad in Physics Today, Nov. 2002, p. 104). They are also getting a proton beam machine, but my doctor expresses some doubt about its utility. For more detail on IMRT therapies see the special issue of the September, 2002, Physics Today. I believe this magazine is carried in both the GCC and the Austin College libraries. Jerry Bylander - Newsletter Editor |