By Cynthia Marshall Schuman
Hospital gets new technologies that target tumors more accurately
According to the National Cancer Institute, deaths from cancer are falling even though the total number of people with the disease is expected to rise. This is due to the effectiveness of cancer treatments, which are allowing patients to live longer, higher-quality lives.
Locally, El Camino Hospital is adopting several new technologies that target tumors more accurately than previous approaches. The objective is to more completely remove cancerous cells, leave healthy tissues unharmed, and reduce complications and side effects, according to Dr. Stephen Weller, medical director of the hospital’s radiation oncology department.
The first update to the department’s suite of tools is a treatment planning system developed by the Milpitas-based nuclear medicine division of Philips Medical Systems (formerly Adac). “It’s software that allows us to image the tumor and normal tissues, then plan the radiation’s pathway, usually from multiple directions, shaping the radiation into the shape of the tumor,” Weller explained.
Being able to direct the radiation beam so that it matches the tumor’s shape and location, called conformal radiation therapy, improves the accuracy of radiation delivery, allowing higher doses to be used with a lower risk of side effects.
The hospital has also recently adopted a cutting-edge approach to treating prostate cancer. Called brachytherapy, this treatment involves injecting radioactive particles into the tumor, working from the inside rather than the outside as with traditional radiation therapy.
Up to 100 radioactive “seeds,” each smaller than a grain of rice, are injected into and around the prostate gland. Their placement is fine-tuned and verified using ultrasound to visualize the area.
“This is a very elegant way of getting treatment to the exact location it’s needed,” said Weller’s medical partner, Dr. Steven Kurtzman. Kurtzman has performed this procedure more than 300 times and teaches doctors nationwide how to do it.
Compared to removing the prostate, brachytherapy is less invasive, doesn’t require a hospital stay, and produces fewer side effects. “There is a lower incidence of incontinence, impotence and other side effects,” Kurtzman said. This is good news for some 180,000 men who were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer in this country last year.
Brachytherapy has been available at El Camino Hospital since June.
The hospital also plans to offer stereotactic radiosurgery to treat brain tumors. This procedure involves delivering higher doses of radiation less often than before.
In the past, brain-tumor patients potentially faced a regimen of daily radiation treatments over a series of weeks. By more accurately delivering a higher amount of radiation to the tumor, stereotactic radiosurgery holds the possibility of requiring fewer visits to the clinic. This is important, as many patients continue to work and tend to their normal routines while receiving treatment. Reducing the number of visits also eases the burden on clinics, which are facing shortages of trained personnel.
And demand is expected to grow. Already, more than half of the nation’s cancer patients undergo radiation. El Camino’s clinic sees up to 30 patients each day. When a new linear accelerator from Palo Alto-based Varian Medical Systems is installed in 2003, the department’s capacity will more than double.
Still, radiation therapy is just one piece in the larger picture of cancer care. “What we envision is a really strong cancer program for the community and radiation therapy is just part of that,” Weller said.
“We strongly believe in integrating the fields of medicine that deal with cancer: chemotherapy, surgery and radiation,” he said.
Weller also advocates taking a strong community approach to the disease, including prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and, at the end of life, palliative and hospice care.
Will there be a cure for cancer? Weller thinks so. “What we do now is slash, poison and burn, and what we’ll do in the future is we’ll have an individual response to a cancer cell that will be biologic, nontoxic to the body, and very toxic to the cancer. I see that coming in my lifetime,” he said.
JOE HU/TOWN CRIER
Dr. Stephen Weller, medical director of El Camino Hospital’s radiation oncology department, displays an X-ray of a prostate cancer patient who has had radioactive ’seeds’ injected into and around the prostate gland. The objective is to pinpoint the treatment of cancerous cells while leaving healthy ones untouched.
Radiation therapy jobs increasing
By Cynthia Marshall Schuman
While the employment slump wears on for many professionals who rode high on the dot-com craze of the late 1990s, some segments of the economy are actually growing.
Radiation therapy, for instance, is experiencing a critical shortage of trained professionals, according to Debra Blodgett, who directs the radiation therapy program at Foothill College. She attributes the shortfall to the aging of the work force and the creation of more radiation treatment centers.
In response to this scarcity, the college has resurrected its radiation therapy program. Come September, a dozen competitively selected students will begin the school’s 24-month, intensive training program.
The students come from as far away as Chico. “(They) come to class one day a week and then they do their clinical training outside,” Blodgett said.
“Foothill is very, very dedicated to the idea of being a regional training area,” she said.
The department has regional training centers in Stockton and Modesto, the East Bay, and Chico and Yuba City. Down the road, it hopes to set up videoconferencing for students in other far-flung areas.
The program closed in 1998 due, in part, to the lure of technology and computer companies for potential applicants. Soon afterward, the local radiation community
See RADIATION, Page 30
