Archive for September, 2009
Sun Sentinel’s Life’s Victories
In recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Sun Sentinel will spotlight local breast cancer survivors in print and online throughout the month of October as part of it’s annual “Life’s Victories” program.
If you have been affected by breast cancer directly or indirectly, or know someone who has, share your/their story. To submit a story and photo of a loved one who died from breast cancer, click here. To submit a story and photo of a loved one who has survived breast cancer, click here.
Phase I Clinical Trials Program
Currently our practice has a large selection of Phase II and III clinical trials through the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP), Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) and Pharmaceutical companies. We are audited regularly by both the cooperative research groups (National Cancer Center funded) and the pharmaceutical company monitors. Our results are consistently good to excellent. We are poised to expand on our success by adding a Phase I program to increase access to treatment trials for our patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease. At present, when these patients have exhausted standard of care treatment, they have to leave their family and local support systems to travel outside the county, and often the state, to find cutting edge care. The Michael and Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center has the vision and clinical expertise to establish a Phase I program that will help cancer patients, with no other treatment options, to stay in the community for treatment and supportive care.
In preparation for opening our Phase I program, we are consulting with a firm from Pennsylvania this week. This company will audit our facilities and phase I preparation to date and tell us what else we can do to make our program state of the art and ready to open. In November, we will be ready to go live with a Phase I study for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Through relationships with the Sarah Cannon Research Institute and other contract research organizations, we have a pipeline of Phase I trials that will open over the next year. Stay tuned to our new website for the Phase I trials as they open.
It would be remiss not to mention our greatest asset in this effort, Dr. Martin Gutierrez, the Medical Director of the Bienes Cancer Center and principal investigator for our phase I program. He is an experienced phase I investigator who came to us a year ago from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He wrote, opened and conducted 12 phase I studies with various compounds in collaboration with an international team. He will be writing some of phase I trials here as well.
We are very excited to be able to offer this program to you along with our other trials that address most of the cancers. Click here to read more about phase I trials and any current trials, many of which are open here at Holy Cross.
See you next month and feel free to call me at 954-267-7704 if you want more details about any of our clinical trials.
Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer
In 2008, approximately 186,000 American men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, resulting in about 28,600 deaths. The optimal therapy for prostate cancer is unclear. Management options include radical prostatectomy (RP), external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT), seed implant, or active surveillance.
The choice of treatment is determined by numerous factors such as patient age and performance status. Also important are tumor factors such as prostate specific antigen (PSA), T-stage and Gleason score. The higher the PSA and Gleason score, the less likely the prostate cancer is confined to the prostate.
Unlike most other cancers, there are no randomized studies comparing surgery to radiotherapy (RT) in prostate cancer, making the optimal treatment decision difficult. Studies from multiple academic centers show equivalent results regardless of therapy. Although many urologists claim that surgery is the “Gold Standard” and has the longest tract record of success, no data exits to corroborate this claim. Guidelines from the American Urological Association (AUA) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) do not claim superiority to either surgery or radiotherapy. In addition, the surgeon generally considered the father of the modern radical prostatectomy, Patrick Walsh from Johns Hopkins University, has stated, “patients with localized prostate cancer now clearly have two good options for treatment: surgery and radiotherapy.”
For the most part, young, healthy men are typically encouraged to undergo surgery, whereas older patients (or those who are not good surgical candidates) tend to be recommended RT or observation. Over the past decade, two major advances in therapy have led to better cure rates and less side-effects in men undergoing radiotherapy for prostate cancer: dose escalation using newer highly conformal techniques (intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT), and combined-modality treatment with hormone therapy.
Considering that outcomes between surgery and radiotherapy are equivalent, it makes sense to avoid an invasive procedure unless if offers superior results. Cure rates associated with RT have at least equivalent to those of RP and will only continue to improve. In light of this, patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer should consider high-dose radiotherapy with IMRT or seed implant prior to deciding to undergo surgery for prostate cancer.
Healing Touch
Two months ago, I completed Level 2 of Healing Touch, a therapeutic modality endorsed by the American Holistic Nurses Association. Healing Touch Florida holds classes on a regular basis at Holy Cross Hospital that are open to health care professionals and the community at large. I appreciate learning techniques which can be used (by patient request) in the day hospital or at bedside to alleviate various kinds of discomfort, including pain reduction and stress relief. Use of the hands involves very light physical touch or no-touch, off-the-body work whose goal is restoration of the harmony and balance of one’s energy system. It aims to collaborate with (not substitute for) regular medical care and is one tool for coping in the midst of crisis that is available at Holy Cross.
As a chaplain and ordained clergywoman, I am mindful that all parts of the body-mind-spirit continuum must be acknowledged and respected for optimal utilization of spiritual/religious support. I am not the first to say that “Pain is a spiritual issue!” As we continue to talk about spiritual/religious coping, I want you to be aware that there are avenues available which can complement the religious and spiritual services offered at Holy Cross. As a relative newcomer to Healing Touch, I welcome your comments, and I’ll keep you posted!
About the Center
The Michael & Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is the Cancer Care Leader in Broward County. Dedicated to providing patients with precise diagnosis, the latest and most advanced treatment and aftercare options, we offer a multidisciplinary approach to care, a compassionate and spiritual healing environment, and an affiliation with the National Cancer Institute. We are also working together with Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center to provide South Florida residents with rapid access to specialized cancer care and genetics counseling.
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