Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:47 pm   Reply with quote      

For Don Nunn, it means eating food again. For Beatrice Boucher, it means being able to take a comfortable breath of air.

Nunn and Boucher both have late-stage cancer and are undergoing a cutting-edge treatment in Hamilton, which patients from as far away as Alberta and Newfoundland are flocking to receive.

The treatment, known as high-dose brachytherapy, is a radiation therapy that lasts only minutes but can completely destroy tumours from the inside. Hamilton’s Juravinski Cancer Centre is one of the few places in the country that uses it on patients with cancer of the esophagus, or food pipe, and the only place in Canada using it on lung cancer patients.

Lung and esophageal cancer are among the deadliest types of cancer because they are rarely caught before they are in the advanced stages. By the time most patients are diagnosed, they have few treatment options available to them.

High-dose brachytherapy provides an option. The treatment involves sending a tiny radioactive seed inside the body to beam high-dose gamma rays at the tumour. After a few treatments, it shrinks tumours that would have otherwise blocked the food pipe or airways.

In late-stage cancer, the disease has already spread to other parts of the body, so this treatment is less about cure than about palliative care.

“People like to hear about cures for cancer, but this is a new concept: improving the quality of life for a patient who we know is going to die,” says Ranjan Sur, a radiation oncologist and pioneer of brachytherapy. “To these patients, nothing is more important.”

The median survival time for patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer is four to five months, and most die from starvation because they can’t swallow food. High-dose brachytherapy doubles the survival time, Sur says.

Esophageal cancer is rare, but virtually all patients are perfect brachytherapy candidates. Lung cancer is the No. 1 killer of Canadian men and women, but fewer of these patients are good candidates.

Aaron

Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:50 pm   Reply with quote      

I didn't know that cancer can cause starvation.

Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:00 pm   Reply with quote      

No, nor did I... sounds very nasty.

Aaron

Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:17 pm   Reply with quote      

Now I remember. Medical use of marijuana is a controversial topic, but apparently, it can increase appetite. Some form of cancer prevents you from having good appetite, but marijuana counter-reacts to it. So, I guess there are number of forms of cancer that can cause starvation.