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Southern Chicago Healthcare Provider, Riverside Healthcare, Launches New Website

June 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

KANKAKEE, IL, Jun 29 (MARKET WIRE) —
Riverside Healthcare is proud to have their new website up and running.
Current users of www.RiversideHealthcare.org will notice that the new
website has maintained the overall look and feel of the original site and
also offers new information in an easy to navigate format. As one of the
top hospitals in Illinois, this website only makes Riverside’s services
that much better.

With just a quick visit to this website you will see that they offer a
wide range of services online. This Chicago south suburbs healthcare
provider allows you to find a physician online with a basic search.
Whether you need a dentist, family doctor, oncologist or even a plastic
surgeon, this website can help you find one. If you need to schedule a
mammogram or bone density scan, you can make this appointment directly
online. There is no need to make telephone call and wait on hold anymore.
Simply logon to get started today.

We all know that paying our medical bills can get hectic at times.
Through Riverside Healthcare’s new website you can pay your medical bills
with their bill payment center. This system makes paying your bills
simple and convenient.

If you are not a patient at the hospital, but know someone staying at the
southern Chicago healthcare center, there are services online that can
help you as well. This website is great for those people who live out of
town and can’t make it to the hospital to be there in person. You can go
online and order flowers to be sent to your loved one. You can choose
from a wide range of beautiful arrangements that will be delivered
directly to their room. The website also offers access to The Market
Place, where you can shop for all different types of medical goods. If
you need books, gifts, strollers, or vitamins, this website has it all.
One of the most popular features of the website is the online nursery. If
someone you are close to just had a baby you can access the online
nursery through their website as well.

Riverside Healthcare’s new website has something to offer everyone. You
can visit the website every day to read up on the latest medical news.
www.RiversideHealthcare.org is just what the doctor ordered!

Media Contact:
Carl Maronich
815-935-7256
Carl-Maronich@riversidehealthcare.net

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: appointment, bill payment, Bone Density Scan, Chicago South Suburbs, Current Users, dentist, family doctor, healthcare center, Healthcare Provider, hospitals, Kankakee Il, mammogram, medical bills, Medical Goods, oncologist, Order Flowers, plastic surgeon, running, Strollers, Vitamins

Southern Chicago Healthcare Provider, Riverside Healthcare, Launches New Website

June 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Media Contact:
Carl Maronich
815-935-7256
Carl-Maronich@riversidehealthcare.net

New therapy mounts double-barreled attack on leukaemia

June 4, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, June 4 (ANI): University of Florida researchers have found a new therapy that mounts a double- barreled attack on leukaemia, targeting not just the cancer cells but also the environment in which those cells live and grow.

Like striking an enemy camp directly as well as cutting off its source of food and other resources, the agent, called Oxi4503, poisons leukaemia cells and destroys the blood vessels that supply them with oxygen and nutrients.

Use of the treatment in mouse models of acute myelogenous leukaemia, or AML, is described online and in an upcoming print issue of the journal Blood.

The researchers plan human tests of the drug at Shands at UF later this year.

“We”ve identified a new tool to dissect out the specifics of the relationship between leukaemia cells and the blood vessels that supply them. What we are offering is a brand new treatment by a very different mechanism to people who desperately need something new,” said Christopher Cogle, M.D., the UF College of Medicine oncologist who is senior author of the paper and a member of the UF Shands Cancer Center. (ANI)

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Genetic study sheds light on chronic pain

May 7, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 7 (ANI): Chronic pain, which often occurs without an apparent cause, may be caused by the inadvertent reprogramming of more than 2,000 genes in the peripheral nervous system, suggests new research.

Mayo Clinic researchers think that the finding could ultimately lead to ‘transcription therapy’, which would employ drugs that kill pain by correcting the activity of specific genes.

The researchers focused on nerve cells suspected to be involved in pain: dorsal root ganglion neurons of the peripheral nervous system in rodent models. They performed high-throughput sequencing of hundreds of millions of mRNA molecules, the messengers of gene activity.

Powerful computer science was required to sort through the many pieces of information (50 base-pair long mRNA sequence “reads”) assembling the complicated genomic puzzle.

The resulting picture revealed a number of surprises, among them 10,464 novel exons (sections of the genome involved in creating proteins) and some 400 gene candidates described for the first time in the study.

Furthermore, detailed building plans for thousands of spliced mRNA were mapped.

“Using this new approach offers greater sensitivity, dynamic range and more efficient unbiased genetic mapping compared to the previous microarray-based methods and may be an efficient new approach to a wide array of problems in neuroscience research,” says Andreas Beutler, Mayo Clinic oncologist and co-author on the study.

The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Genome Research. (ANI)

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Website may revolutionise tumour treatment

April 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A website dedicated to researching rare tumours has been launched to assist cancer patients.

The website https://www.cart-wheel.org/ was designed and developed in Melbourne with local cancer specialists and patients.

Oncologist and principal investigator Dr Clare Scott says it is the first international, ethically-approved website to bring together patient information, including up-to-date research and clinical trials advice.

Dr Scott says rare tumours account for more than 30 per cent of cancer-related deaths and the days of relying solely on information from doctors are over.

“Patients are looking further afield than that and as treatments become more specialised, indeed they have to, it no longer is the case that a patient can rely on their doctor having all of the relevant information or clinical trials available,” she said.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: cancer patients, cancer specialists, Cart Wheel, clinical trials, deaths, doctors, Dr Scott, Melbourne, oncologist, Patient Information, principal investigator, tumours, wheel

Popular diabetes drug may help fight breast cancer

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 15 (ANI): A popular diabetes drug called metformin has been found to be effective in fighting breast cancer.

The findings of the study from Harvard Medical School showed that metformin, along with conventional chemotherapy, shows promise for treating and delaying recurrence of breast cancer.

“We have found a compound selective for cancer stem cells,” said senior author Kevin Struhl, the David Wesley Gaiser professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS.

“What’s different is that ours is a first-line diabetes drug,” he added.

The drug seemed to work independently of its ability to improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar and insulin levels, all of which are also associated with better breast cancer outcomes.

“There is a big desire to find drugs specific to cancer stem cells,” said Struhl.

“The cancer stem cell hypothesis says you cannot cure cancer unless you also get rid of the cancer stem cells. From a purely practical point of view, this could be tested in humans. It’s already used as a first-line diabetes drug,” he added.

Lead researchers Heather Hirsch and Dimitrios Iliopoulos found that the combination of metformin and the cancer drug doxorubicin killed human cancer stem cells and non-stem cancer cells in culture.

In mice, pre-treatment with the diabetes drug prevented the otherwise dramatic ability of human breast cancer stem cells to form tumours.

In cases where tumours were allowed to take hold for 10 days, the dual therapy also reduced tumour mass more quickly and prevented relapse for longer than doxorubicin alone.

“This is an exciting study,” said Jennifer Ligibel, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an HMS instructor in medicine, who was not involved in the study.

“There is a lot of interest in studying metformin in breast cancer, but so far we do not have direct evidence that metformin will improve outcomes in patients,” Ligibel said. “That’s what this trial is for.”

The findings appear online in the journal Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Even men can get breast cancer

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): Men too can get breast cancer, according to an American non-profit organization.

The Alliance for Breast Cancer Awareness in Women and Men is the result of the work of graduate students in two communication classes taught by William J.P. Smith Jr., an adjunct instructor in the College of Communication and Information, who is himself a breast cancer survivor.

The group wants to educate the public that breast cancer is a disease that crosses gender lines.

“Only one-half to 1 percent of those diagnosed with breast cancer annually in the United States are males. This is one of the reasons it’s perceived as a ‘women’s disease,’” Smith said.

“However, an oncologist in Tallahassee said that figure could be between 10 and 12 percent if men were regularly checked by their doctors, and an oncologist in Los Angeles said it could be as high as 20 percent,” the expert added.

Globally, the percentage is even higher. Research abroad showed the percentage of breast cancer diagnoses for men at 15 percent in Zambia and 6 percent in Egypt and Tanzania, Smith said. (ANI)

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Oestrogen treatment safe for some metastatic breast cancer patients

August 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 19 (ANI): A study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions suggests that when oestrogen-lowering drugs no longer control metastatic breast cancer, the opposite strategy may work.

During the study, increasing oestrogen levels was found to benefit 30 percent of women whose metastatic breast cancer no longer responded to standard anti-oestrogen treatment.

Not only did oestrogen treatment often stop disease progression, in some patients metastatic tumours became resensitised and again responded to anti-oestrogen treatments.

“The women in the study had all experienced a relapse while on estrogen-lowering drugs, and their disease was progressing. So they were faced with undergoing chemotherapy. We found that estrogen treatment stopped disease progression in many patients and was much better tolerated than chemotherapy would have been,” says lead author Dr. Matthew J. Ellis, an oncologist with the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The study involved 66 postmenopausal women with breast cancer that had spread beyond the breast. All participants were originally diagnosed with oestrogen receptor positive (ER ) breast tumours, meaning oestrogen stimulated tumour growth.

Seventy-five percent of breast cancer cases are ER. All participants had received aromatase inhibitor treatment, which severely lowers oestrogen levels, but their metastatic tumours had later reappeared or resumed growing.

The research team compared a high 30-milligram daily dose of oestrogen to a low 6-milligram daily dose, and evaluated how well the treatments controlled the women’s metastatic cancers, and how the treatments affected their quality of life.

Ellis said that 30 per cent of the participants were found to experience a clinical benefit-their tumours either shrank or stopped growing.

Interestingly, the researchers could even predict fairly accurately which patients would have the positive response.

Conducting standard positron emission tomography (PET) scans before oestrogen treatment and 24 hours later, they observed that metastatic tumors that glowed more brightly after oestrogen was started were much more likely to be affected by oestrogen therapy.

In 80 percent of women with PET flare reactions, tumours responded to oestrogen therapy, and in 87 percent of women without PET flares, tumours did not respond to oestrogen.

Questionnaires filled out by the participants showed that adverse reactions to oestrogen during the study included headaches, bloating, breast tenderness, fluid retention, nausea, and vomiting. Patients receiving the high oestrogen dose had more severe side effects.

“The older women in the study were, the fewer estrogen-related symptoms they had. But overall, we demonstrated clearly that the low dose was better tolerated than the high dose and was just as effective for controlling metastatic disease,” says Ellis also professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology.

In the 30 percent of participants who responded to oestrogen, tumours often began to grow again after a period of months or years. But in a third of the recurring cases, the researchers showed that the women’s tumours had become resensitised to anti-oestrogen therapy.

The tumours shrank or stopped growing when the patients went back on their original aromatase inhibitor treatment.

The study has been reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (ANI)

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Why some women develop breast cancer earlier than others

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): Researchers at New Jersey’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center have taken a step towards unlocking the mysteries of why some women develop breast cancer at an earlier age than others.

The researchers have expanded a study to identify genetic markers in women with the disease, and their trial will now include more healthy volunteers as well.

According to state health statistics, roughly 13 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer in New Jersey are younger than age 45, while nearly half of the women diagnosed with the disease and seen at CINJ are not yet 50.

And now, the investigators are hoping to shed light on these figures through an ongoing clinical trial whose goal is to identify genetic markers for the disease.

By including larger numbers of healthy women in the study, the researchers could pinpoint genetic differences between women who develop breast cancer and those who don’t.

Researchers led CINJ medical oncologist Dr. Kim M. Hirshfield recently discovered that some genes might be associated with increased risk of developing breast cancer, while others may actually protect against the development of the disease.

These same gene variations may also play a role in breast cancer outcomes.

“If we are able to identify these slight variations, we can learn more about how breast cancer develops and its outcomes. This information could one day lead to more tailored treatment for those with the disease and perhaps even better prevention methods and screening recommendations,” said Hirshfield.

She noted that the majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no known risk factors, and that only five to ten percent of breast cancers are actually caused by changes or mutations in known breast cancer genes.

Study participants will have blood drawn for laboratory analysis. The sample will be used to obtain blood cells as well as DNA. Facts about one’s breast health and overall medical history will be documented.

Both the blood sample and the clinical information will be analyzed and saved for possible future use.

Investigators are looking for more than 3,000 participants to complete the study.

Women and men aged 18 or older with no history of breast cancer, with a diagnosis of breast cancer, or a breast abnormality indicating increased risk for development of breast cancer are eligible to take part in the trial, although other criteria must be met. (ANI)

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Cancer drug erases fingerprints, patient held at US airport

May 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 27 (IANS) US officials detained a cancer patient for four hours before allowing him entry into the country because one of the drugs he took had wiped out his fingerprints.

His oncologist is now advising all cancer patients, prescribed capecitabine, a common cancer drug, to carry a doctor’s letter with them if they want to travel to the US.

The oncologist informed that several other cancer patients have reported loss of fingerprints on their blog sites, and some have also commented on similar problems entering the US.

Eng-Huat Tan, a senior consultant at the National Cancer Centre, Singapore, described how his patient, a 62-year-old man, had head and neck cancer that had spread but had responded well to chemotherapy.

To help prevent a recurrence of the cancer, the patient was prescribed capecitabine, a common drug used in treating head and neck, breast, stomach and colorectal cancers.

One of its side-effects can be hand-foot syndrome – a chronic inflammation of the palms or soles of the feet and the skin can peel, bleed and develop ulcers or blisters.

“This can cause eradication of finger prints with time,” said Tan.

The patient, identified as only S, developed a mild case of hand-foot syndrome, and because it was not affecting his daily life he was kept on a low dose of the drug.

“In December 2008, after more than three years of capecitabine, he went to the United States to visit his relatives,” wrote Tan.

“He was detained at the airport customs for four hours because the immigration officers could not detect his fingerprints. He was allowed to enter after the custom officers were satisfied that he was not a security threat.”

“He was advised to travel with a letter from his oncologist stating his condition and the treatment he was receiving to account for his lack of fingerprints to facilitate his entry in future.”

S was not aware that he had lost his fingerprints before he travelled, said a press release issued by Tan.

Foreign visitors have been asked to provide fingerprints at US airports for several years now, and the images are matched with millions of visa holders to detect whether the new visa applicant has a visa under a different name.

“These fingerprints are also matched to a list of suspected criminals,” wrote Tan.

The incident is highlighted in a letter to Annals of Oncology, published online Wednesday.

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Gene that makes colon cancer resistant to treatment identified

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 19 (ANI): Researchers have found that low levels of a particular gene make colon cancer patients resistant to celebrex treatment.

Lead researcher Dr Sanford Markowitz, the Markowitz-Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and an oncologist at the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals Case Medical Centre said that individuals who have low expression of the gene 15-PGDH also called ‘Celebrex gene’ make individuals resistant to colon cancer treatment.

“These findings have two important practical implications,” said Markowitz, who is also an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“First, they suggest that measurement of 15-PGDH may identify which individuals are most likely to benefit from treatment with Celecoxib as a colon tumor preventative.

“Second, they suggest that identifying drugs that could increase 15-PGDH expression in the colon could be a potent new strategy for preventing development of tumours in the colon,” Markowitz added.

Previous studies by Markowitz had shown that the gene 15-PGDH is expressed by the normal colon and acts similarly to Celecoxib in preventing colon tumors by inhibiting the COX-2 pathway.

Another study led by Dr Monica Bertagnolli, at the Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital showed that with Celecoxib treatment, individuals who had previously developed colon adenomas cut the rate of developing new adenomas by one-third, and cut the rate of developing new large adenomas by two-thirds.

In the new study, the researchers sought to determine whether protection from colon tumors by Celecoxib actually require the joint action of both the drug and the 15-PGDH gene

They found that in mice that genetically lacked the gene 15-PGDH Celecoxib proved unable to prevent the development of colon tumors, suggesting that both the drug and the gene are needed to protect the colon from tumour development.

The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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Program on body, mind and spirit may help women with breast cancer cope

May 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 17 (ANI): A program, called Pathfinders, created to take care of body, mind and spirit, could help women with terminal cancer cope and improve their quality of life, says a new study.

The study led by researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center revealed that Pathfinders focuses on the seven pillars of personal recovery- hope, balance, inner strengths, self care, support, spirit and life review.

“The program helped improve distress and despair during the initial three months and up to six months after diagnosis among women with metastatic breast cancer and a six month life expectancy,” said Amy Abernethy, M.D., an oncologist at Duke University Medical Center and lead investigator on the study.

She added: “Even though the women were getting sicker and experiencing more symptoms related to their cancer, they reported that they felt less distress and despair as a result of being able to better cope with the cancer.”

The program provides patient navigation, counselling, coping skills training, mind and body techniques and lifestyle advice.

“The goal of the program is to teach patients coping skills for dealing with their cancer. To reach this goal, we have created a common language between patients, nurses, physicians and Pathfinders for communicating coping skills,” said Tina Staley, director of Pathfinders.

To conduct this pilot study, the researchers enrolled 50 adult breast cancer patients with a prognosis of less than six months survival.

The women met with a Pathfinder, a trained social worker, at least monthly, and also consulted via telephone and e-mails.

The social workers helped the women identify inner strength, taught them coping skills and encouraged them to engage in complementary and alternative medical services.

“There is a growing body of data that shows cancer patients have unmet psychosocial needs, and with programs like Pathfinders we are able to care for the whole person. As a result, we found that this group of women reported a higher quality of life three months after being diagnosed than was expected,” said Abernethy.

The findings will be presented on a poster at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando. (ANI)

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Triple drug therapy shows promise in treating breast cancer

May 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 16 (ANI): Mayo researchers have suggested a triple drug therapy that may offer a promising new option for breast cancer.

They said that combining two chemotherapy drugs with trastuzumab (Herceptin) to treat women who have metastatic HER2+ breast cancer might offer physicians another choice in their treatment options.

“This is a very well tolerated regimen. The combination is a good example of an excellent therapeutic ratio: good activity and low toxicity,” said study’s senior investigator, Dr Edith Perez, director of Mayo Clinic’s Breast Center in Jacksonville.
Dr Winston Tan, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic said that the chemotherapy regimen was previously tested in Europe and demonstrated good anti-tumour activity and low toxicity, so Mayo researchers combined it with Herceptin.

They found that 67pct of the 45 patients responded to treatment, with their tumours decreasing in size by at least 30 percent.

“The results are encouraging, and would support a larger, randomized Phase III study,” he said.

“This is a Phase II study of this triple combination, so we would need to study this treatment against the standard best two-drug treatment in a randomized Phase III study to know if this triplet is more effective.

“This regimen seems to be a very reasonable choice, and it offers the added advantage that women who use it do not lose their hair,” he says. The drug combination used most commonly for patients with HER2+ breast cancer that has spread – paclitaxel or docetaxel with trastuzumab – always causes hair loss,” he added.

The study was presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). (ANI)

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Nerve pain pill found effective in treating hot flashes

May 16, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Washington, May 16 (ANI): A pill used to treat nerve pain has been found effective in treating hot flashes in women, claim Mayo Clinic researchers.

They have found that pregabalin decreased hot flash severity and frequency about 20 percent more than did a placebo.

Pregabalin has been found to offer about the same benefit as gabapentin, an older, related drug, as well as newer classes of antidepressants.

“Hot flashes are a major problem in many women, and for those who opt not to take hormonal therapies or antidepressants, pregabalin appears to be another treatment option,” said the study’s lead author, Charles Loprinzi, M.D., a medical oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Women who use pregabalin only need to take two pills a day, versus three for gabapentin, he added.

Gabapentin and a variety of antidepressants are commonly prescribed for treatment of hot flashes and pregabalin is a newer version of gabapentin.

Dr. Loprinzi and colleagues set up a 207-participant study conducted by the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG). Patients getting pregabalin started off with lower doses which were increased weekly to the eventual full dose.

The researchers found that for the 163 patients both doses of pregabalin reduced hot flashes to about the same degree, but that toxicities, such as cognitive dysfunction, were increased at the higher dose.

After six weeks of treatment, women receiving pregabalin showed 65 percent decrease in hot flashes compared to 50 percent decrease in those receiving placebo.

“All in all, this study demonstrates that we have another agent to add to the list of medications that offer benefit against hot flashes, even in women using anti-estrogen therapies,” said Dr. Loprinzi .

The findings were presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). (ANI)

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Soon, just a drop of blood to spot cancer

April 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 13 (ANI): Just a drop of blood or a chunk of very tiny tissue is all that will be required to diagnose cancers and assess their response to treatment, if scientists have their way.

In a recently study, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine used a specialized machine that was capable of analysing whether individual cancer-associated proteins were present in the tiny samples, and even whether modifications of the proteins varied in response to cancer treatments.

The study focussed on blood cancers, but the research team is optimistic that their technique may some day provide a faster, less invasive way to track solid tumours.

“Currently we don’t know what’s going on in a patient’s actual tumor cells when a treatment is given,” Nature magazine quoted oncologist Dr. Alice Fan, a clinical instructor in the division of oncology at the medical school, as saying.

“The standard way we measure if a treatment is working is to wait several weeks to see if the tumor mass shrinks. It would really be a leap forward if we could detect what is happening at a cellular level,” the researcher added.

Dr. Dean Felsher, a member of Stanford’s Cancer Center in whose lab the research was performed, said: “This technology allows us to analyse cancer-associated proteins on a very small scale. Not only can we detect picogram levels – one-trillionth of a gram – of protein, but we can also see very subtle changes in the ways the protein is modified.”

During the study, the researchers used the machine to separate cancer-associated proteins in narrow capillary tubes based on their charge, which varies according to modifications on the proteins’ surface. Two versions of the same protein – one modified and one not – can be easily distinguished because they travel different distances in the tube.

The team then used antibodies to identify the relative amounts and positions of the various proteins.

The scientists found that not only was the technique able to identify oncogene activation in cultured tumour cells, but it also worked well in small lymphoma samples drawn from laboratory mice with small, hollow needles.

They were also able to detect varying levels of expression of two common oncogenes in 44 of 49 lymphoma samples from human patients as compared with normal controls, and even distinguish some types of lymphomas from others.

Fan and Felsher said that their study also detected subtle differences in modifications in several other cancer-associated proteins.

“Some of these proteins can exist as five or six phosphorylated variants. With this technology we can see changes that occur in as little as 10 percent of the total protein pool. Now we have a tool that will really help us look at what’s happening in cells over time,” said Felsher.

“Surgical biopsies usually require general anaesthesia and large amounts of tissue. If we can figure out how to go in with a needle and remove just a few cells for analysis, we could repeatedly assess how the tumour is responding to treatment,” added Fan.

Though the research group focused on lymphoma and leukaemia during the study, Fan is expanding her investigations to include head and neck tumours, which tend to be relatively accessible for cell sampling.

Both Fan and Felsher caution that more research is needed before the technology is widely available clinically.

“This is really a complement to existing diagnostic and therapeutic methods,” said Fan.

The study has been published in the online version of the journal Nature Medicine. (ANI)

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Certain radiation therapy treatments can reduce fertility

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 2 (ANI): A research team, including an Indian-origin boffin, has suggested that radiation treatment directly to the ovaries should be avoided in female cancer patients of reproductive age because there is a direct relationship between certain types of radiation therapy and fertility problems.

Radiation therapy to the pelvic region can cause ovarian failure or result in damage that makes the uterus unable to accommodate the growth of a foetus.

These effects are not a great concern to cancer patients past their reproductive years, but due to the growing number of paediatric and young-adult cancer survivors, these effects are increasingly relevant.

Researchers at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program and the Department of Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston, sought to review the impact of radiation therapy on fertility, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes among female patients and the effectiveness of ovarian transposition, or moving the ovaries out of the field of radiation, as a means of preserving fertility.

The researchers reviewed the outcomes of past studies that reported fertility, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes as a result of cranio-spinal, abdominal and pelvic radiation and determined that cranio-spinal irradiation caused hormonal changes that affected a woman’s ability to become pregnant later in life.

They found that women who received abdominal or pelvic radiation had an increased risk of uterine dysfunction that led to miscarriage, preterm labour, low birth weight and placental abnormalities.

The researchers also found that women who received low doses of ovarian radiation could suffer early menopause.

Ovarian transposition was proven to be an effective method of reducing the rates of ovarian dysfunction, but even if the ovaries are outside of the field of radiation, scatter dose can cause significant damage.

“Female patients who are not past their reproductive years would be best served by a multidisciplinary team of caregivers, including a radiation oncologist, pediatric oncologist, medical oncologist, a reproductive endocrinologist or gynecologist, and a maternal fetal medicine specialist,” Akila Viswanathan, M.D., M.P.H., senior author and a radiation oncologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, said.

“Only through a multidisciplinary approach will patients receive optimal care of their cancer and the best options for fertility preservation,” Viswanathan added.

The study has been published in the April 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. (ANI)

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UK docs to use ‘Cyberknife’ to treat cancer

February 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, February 8 (ANI): Doctors in Britain will for the first time use a robotic radiotherapy machine to treat cancer this week.

The machine called Cyberknife is said to be worth 2.5 million pounds.

It maps the movement of a patient’s breathing so that tumours can be targeted with greater accuracy than is currently possible.

The novel device uses a robotic arm to deliver multiple beams of high-dose radiation from a wide variety of angles

The patient’s breathing is monitored with the aid of X-ray cameras, and the radiotherapy beam is repositioned accordingly to minimise damage to surrounding tissues.

This, in turn, makes the therapy so accurate that even tumours in difficult positions and dangerous to operate on, such as near the spinal chord, can be treated safely.

Ten people are lined up for treatment in the Harley Street Clinic in London, at a cost per patient of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds.

Dr. Nick Plowman, a consultant oncologist at St Bartholomew’s hospital, who will oversee the treatment.

“If you get a discreet little tumour in an awkward place, under the liver or next to the kidney, then there’s really nothing better than the Cyberknife,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying. (ANI)

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