Hussar noted that while the fluoride pills may have some flavoring because they are meant to be chewed, Tamoxifen is a pill that’s intended to be swallowed, so no effort is made to make it taste good. That means a child who mistakenly took a Tamoxifen pill would likely “want to spit it out or tell his parents it tastes bad,” said Hussar, who has written and spoken extensively in the areas of new drugs, drug interactions, patient compliance, and issues facing the profession of pharmacy. He’s also served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the American Pharmacists Association and is a Past President of the Drug Information Association and the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association.
Huntingdonshire man dedicates life to cancer therapy
HARD WORK: David Longman receives an award for his promotion of healthcare from former MP Michael Portillo.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
4:00 PM
A HUNTINGDONSHIRE man has sold his home and given up his job so he can publicise a cancer treatment which he says saved the life of his daughter. David Longman, 55, who lives with is partner in Hemingford Abbots, will launch a fundraising campaign later
A HUNTINGDONSHIRE man has sold his home and given up his job so he can publicise a cancer treatment which he says saved the life of his daughter.
David Longman, 55, who lives with is partner in Hemingford Abbots, will launch a fundraising campaign later this year aimed at getting photodynamic therapy (PDT) into the public consciousness.
The treatment is being billed as an alternative way to eradicate tumours without the need for surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
The former journalist and advertising executive said he wanted to highlight the therapy after it was used on his daughter, Louise, five years ago when she was 18.
He has founded a charity called Killing Cancer to raise awareness of the treatment.
In simple terms photodynamic therapy (PDT) works by injecting the tumour with a drug (based on chlorophyll) that makes it hyper-sensitive to light. The tumour is then flooding with light, which can destroy it.
Some healthy cells may be affected, but they will heal after the treatment, said Mr Longman.
The only reported major side affect is that the patient will be extra-sensitive (eyes and skin) to light for a few weeks after the process.
While Mr Longman believes that the treatment is a viable alternative to other therapies for some forms of cancer, he warned that it is not a cure and cannot stop another tumour growing – as is the case with other treatments.
Currently PDT is used to treat cancers – and precancerous conditions – of the skin, head, neck, mouth, lung, gullet, stomach and bile ducts.
Mr Longman told The Hunts Post: “PDT is a very quick and simple treatment. My father died of head and neck cancer and at 88-years-old he was subjected to nine hours of surgery.
“With PDT he could have had half-an-hour of treatment.
“When we launch the campaign, we are going to completely change the cancer world. We are going to put choice into the hands of the public and we will raise the £50million funds we need to develop the trials.”
Mr Longman said his daughter, now aged 23 and a teacher in Birmingham, has had two tumours in her arm in the past five years – both were destroyed by this method.
He is hoping that half the money needed for the research will come from donations and the other half from a drug company. He said he is talking with companies in Seattle and France.
Mr Longman, a father of three, added: “I have sold my house and my car and given up my job for this campaign because nothing is more important than this.
“It is too important not to be totally focused on.”
On Thursday at the London Hilton, Mr Longman was presented with an award by Health Investor Magazine, presented by former MP Michael Portillo, for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual to Healthcare Development.
Mr Longman said he would officially launching his Killing Cancer campaign, simultaneously at the Royal Free Hospital in London and Harvard Medical School in Boston, in September.
INFORMATION: For more information see: www.killingcancer.co.uk
PDT Research
nPDT is a recognised form of treatment and research is being carried out on its use
nMedical research trials are in three phases: Phase one is to ensure the drug does not harm (this trial is likely to be with a small number, possibly eight people)
nPhase two is to establish that the drug is effective (20 or 30 people)
nPhase three consists of large-scale trials with thousands of patients comparing the new and established treatments
nPhase two research is currently being carried out at Dundee University on the use on PDT on brain tumours
nPhase one research is currently being carried out at University College London on PDT treatment for pancreatic cancer
INFORMATION FROM CANCER RESEARCH UK
Sign in to leave your comment
0
comments
Ironwood building new cancer and research facility in Gilbert
Ironwood Cancer Research Centers – New Gilbert Rendering
Posted: Friday, March 2, 2012 9:37 am
|
Updated: 10:36 am, Fri Mar 2, 2012.
East Valley Tribune
A cancer treatment and research center will expand its presence in the East Valley by constructing a new clinic in Gilbert.
Ironwood Cancer Research Centers will build a 25,000-square-foot facility near the Loop 202 Santan Freeway and Val Vista Drive, close to a smaller existing office. The Gilbert office is now Ironwood’s smallest location but the new clinic will be the same size as the offices in Chandler and Mesa, said Melissa Veselovsky, Ironwood’s patient advocacy director.
“We’ll be able to accommodate more patients,” Veselovsky said.
The new facility also allows Ironwood to expand clinical trials in Gilbert, and to add surgical urology and gynecologic oncology.
Ironwood expects to begin construction in three months to six months. It will take up to 16 months to complete the two-story building in the 3600 block of South Rome Street.
Ironwood expects the Gilbert facility will draw patients from across the Valley in part because of its freeway access, Veselovsky said. Ironwood is one of Arizona’s largest oncology groups in Arizona. It is a division of Ironwood Physicians, PC.
Gilbert Councilman John Sentz said the clinic expands what’s already a wide variety of health services offered in the community.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, it puts Gilbert on the map as a center of excellence for cancer treatment and research,” he said.
Sentz credits Ironwood with saving his life last year when he underwent radiation, chemotherapy and eventually surgery to remove a large tumor. He chose Ironwood after a friend, who is a surgeon, recommended the clinic.
“The people were just wonderful,” Sentz said. “Not only were they professionally very good, but a caring group,” he said.
Ironwood’s expansion joins about 2 million square feet of medical and clinical trial space in Gilbert. The town is home to a cluster of health providers including Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, Banner Gateway Medical Center, M.D. Anderson Banner Cancer Center, the Celebration Stem Cell Centre and Gilbert Hospital.
Sentz said M.D. Anderson draws so many patients from afar that it built an on-site park for recreational vehicles.
“If people are in treatment and they’re from out of town, they can bring an RV and park it there,” he said.
Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com
More about Health_medical_pharma
- ARTICLE: Health coverage search should start with key steps
- ARTICLE: Letter: Is church more important than a woman’s life?
- ARTICLE: Foundation offers scholarship for Gilbert grads
- ARTICLE: Mobile prostate screening
More about Ironwood
- ARTICLE: Shorthanded squads defined Flowing Wells invite
- ARTICLE: Apache Junction district events honor Arizona’s centennial
- IMAGE: Pinnacle wins 5A-II championship in 2010-2011
- ARTICLE: Wanted: New shoes for kids in need
Posted in
Money,
Gilbert,
Health
on
Friday, March 2, 2012 9:37 am.
Updated: 10:36 am.
| Tags:
Unnecessary cancer treatment in men on the rise
By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new review of U.S. data on prostate cancer finds that despite established guidelines, a growing number of men who should not be getting aggressive treatment are getting it anyway.
Men with low-risk tumors and a life-expectancy of less than 10 years — for instance, men in their 80s or 90s — are not candidates for so-called curative therapies like radiation or prostate surgery because there’s little evidence it would benefit them.
Yet the proportion of men in that category receiving curative treatment rose between the late 1990s and late 2000′s, the study found. “In our society, cancer is probably the most feared disease.
The problem with prostate cancer is that most patients have a very non-aggressive form of cancer,” said Dr. Cary Gross of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.
According to Gross, the study’s senior author, the team expected to find that people less likely to benefit from treatment would receive fewer treatments, not more, over time. “What we found was the opposite of what we expected,” he said.
“These trends are actually moving in the opposite direction.” According to the American Cancer Association, there will be about 242,000 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the U.S. in 2012.
They project about 28,000 men will die from the disease this year.
Practice guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommend active surveillance of men with low-risk tumors and a life expectancy of less than 10 years, but not active treatment.
For their research, Gross and his colleagues examined a database of cancer patients linked with Medicare information to identify men between 67 and 84 years old diagnosed with localized prostate cancer between 1998 and 2007.
They then looked at those who received treatment within nine months of their diagnoses.
Overall, of about 40,000 men with low-risk tumors, about 64 percent received treatment. Gross’ team used standard actuarial tables to determine the men’s life expectancy, and among those expected to live less than five years — about 3,600 men — the number who got treatment increased from about 38 percent in 1998-1999 to about 52 percent in 2006-2007.
The opposite trend was seen for about 12,000 men with longer life expectancies of ten years or more. In 1998-1999, about 81 percent of them received treatment but by 2006-2007 that number dropped to about 80 percent.
According to the researchers, not treating a potentially fatal illness can reflect poor care, but treating people with little hope for benefit puts the patients at an increased risk of disease and increased costs.
“Given widespread concerns about the rate of increase in Medicare expenditures, it is notable that the most substantial increase in treatment in our sample was noted among the patients who were least likely to benefit,” they write.
Gross said men should talk to their doctors about their risks and benefits after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. “When men are talking to their doctors, they should not just be asking ‘what type of treatment should I receive,’” he said.
The alternative for those with low risk cancer could be active surveillance, which means regular monitoring to make sure the cancer is not progressing. Even for doctors, the choice between treatment and active surveillance can be a tough one to make.
Dr. Charles Bennett, a practicing academic oncologist specializing in prostate cancer from South Carolina, wrote about his own experience of being diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in the same issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
Bennett wrote that at age 50 he decided to have prostatectomy, which is the removal of all or part of the prostate, after a blood test revealed increased prostate-specific antigen levels and a biopsy confirmed he had cancer. Five years after his surgery, Bennett writes that his right arm and leg are weak, making his former practice of jogging five miles daily impossible.
“If I could do it all over again, I would not undergo the surgery; instead, I would opt for active surveillance,” wrote Bennett. “Even the most informed patient (me in this case) has difficulty making a truly informed decision.” Dr. Eric Klein, chairman of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine in Ohio, told Reuters Health that both patients and doctors don’t do enough surveillance.
“Patients and their families hear the word ‘cancer’ and think we need to treat it,” he said. A prostatectomy can cost over $12,000. Klein, who was not involved with the new study, said patients should not only discuss their blood tests with their doctor. They should also discuss how other risk factors, such as age and race, could affect their outcomes.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/y6yC5f Archives of Internal Medicine, online February 27, 2012.
Robotic Prostate Cancer Surgery at Any Age
NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire -02/29/12)- Watchful waiting and treatment choice are hot topics in the battle against prostate cancer. To treat or not to treat is even more heavily debated when men advance in age. A growing number of experts maintain that prostate cancer poses limited immediate health risks and that older patients need not subject themselves to treatment such as prostate cancer surgery or radiation for prostate cancer.
Dr. David Samadi, Vice Chairman, Department of Urology, and Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, leads the charge in the aggressive and immediate treatment of prostate cancer. As a leading robotic prostatectomy surgeon, he has performed over 3,800 successful prostate removal surgeries; a significant number of his patients are over age 65.
“The justification is really very simple,” Dr. Samadi explains, “Prostate cancer is a deadly disease and robotic surgery is a highly effective, minimally invasive way to cure it. The patients I meet are not willing to sit idle with constant anxiety and worry about the state of their prostate cancer. They’re active men who — at any age — want to enjoy their families, their wives, and their busy lives.”
Yale School of Medicine recently published a study of nearly 40,000 prostate cancer patients age 67 and older. Their findings show an increase in active prostate cancer treatment in men with a shorter life expectancy and a moderate-risk diagnosis. As such, the research team suggests that, in some men, treatment may be more aggressive than warranted.
Prostate cancer is diagnosed through a PSA blood test and digital rectal exam (DRE). Abnormal values are subsequently followed by biopsy. Currently, however, prostate cancer diagnostic tools are limited in their ability to accurately stage the disease. This creates more complex treatment decisions whereby specialists and patients must weigh age, wellness, lifestyle, treatment side effects, and diagnosis details carefully.
“We can’t generalize what’s best for an otherwise healthy patient. Today age is very relative,” said Dr. Samadi, “When I know I can safely and successfully operate on an older man, eliminate his prostate cancer, and give him an enjoyable, worthwhile life I am confident recommending robotic surgery.”
Among Dr. Samadi’s success stories is 79-year-old Bernie Ruderman. Diagnosed last year with advanced prostate cancer, Bernie immediately sought Dr. Samadi. “I was skeptical about my chances of becoming his patient,” said Bernie, “but I felt my life depended on it.” After a thorough consultation, Dr. Samadi saw beyond Bernie’s age and agreed to operate on him. “This is a man who leads a very full life. He wasn’t willing to be sidelined by prostate cancer and I knew that with robotic surgery I could give him the full recovery and quality of life he deserves,” Dr. Samadi added.
Bernie’s surgery was a success and just six weeks later his PSA level was near zero. “He was walking around the hospital room just hours after the procedure. Bernie isn’t the exception, but he is an exceptional patient,” commended Dr. Samadi, “His determination for not just recovery, but a quality life at any age is a testament to the role that minimally invasive robotic surgery can play in curing prostate cancer.”
Bernie speaks candidly about his recovery post-robotic prostatectomy in Dr. Samadi’s newsletter, Robotic Oncology, including the short-lived urinary and sexual side effects he experienced. The newsletter includes many other articles on the latest prostate cancer information and treatment innovations.
Related Links:
Robotic Oncology Newsletter – Click Here
Smart-Surgery.com
PDF Attachment Available: http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/201202/41208_RO_Newsletter_02.12.pdf
Attachment Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=1904210
Cancer Treatment Centers of America to Release Patients Beyond Borders® Focus On™
Top US cancer treatment hospitals soon to be featured in popular digital publication series
Chapel Hill, NC (PRWEB) March 01, 2012
Patients Beyond Borders® is pleased to announce the June, 2012 release of FOCUS ON: Cancer Treatment Centers of America®, profiling one of America’s leading cancer treatment networks specializing in treating patients dealing with complex and advanced-stage cancer diagnoses.
Patients Beyond Borders FOCUS ON: Cancer Treatment Centers of America will provide international healthcare consumers with in-depth information on the hospitals’ unique cancer treatment approach, their top doctors and specialties, achievements, and accreditations, as well as patient case studies and travel information.
Founded decades ago by Richard J. Stephenson and based on its own patient-focused principles of the Mother Standard® of care, Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) has grown from a single comprehensive treatment center in suburban Illinois to a network of facilities operating throughout the US, including Philadelphia, PA; Tulsa, OK; Goodyear, AZ; and Seattle, WA. A sixth center in Atlanta, GA, will welcome patients beginning August, 2012.
Accredited by The Joint Commission, American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, College of American Pathologists, and American College of Radiology, among others, CTCA’s comprehensive and integrative approach to fighting cancer incorporates traditional methods, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, with supportive therapies, including nutritional counseling, naturopathic medicine, mind-body medicine, oncology rehabilitation, pain management, and spiritual support, to help patients manage side effects and improve quality of life.
“We’ve had the opportunity of touring the Illinois and Pennsylvania facilities and were quite impressed with the CTCA approach, achievements, treatment results, and perhaps most important, the hospitals’ dedication to the patient,” says Josef Woodman, CEO of Patients Beyond Borders. “CTCA is revolutionizing the way cancer patients are experiencing, and in many cases surviving, this disease.”
“The US remains a leading destination for cancer treatment, and the CTCA integrative philosophy appeals to international patients,” says Steve Bonner, CEO and president of CTCA. “We are pleased to join Patients Beyond Borders’ growing family of leading global medical providers.”
FOCUS ON: Cancer Treatment Centers of America will be accessible from a variety of sources, including the Patients Beyond Borders website, CTCA websites, Kindle, GoogleBooks, Apple iBooks and other eBook readers, iPhone and other mobile devices, medical, business, and reference libraries worldwide, and all popular social networks. The publication will be translated into Spanish later this year.
About Cancer Treatment Centers of America
CTCA is a national network of hospitals providing a comprehensive, fully integrated approach to cancer treatment. CTCA serves patients with complex and advanced-stage cancer from all 50 states and around the world at facilities located in Chicago, Philadelphia, Tulsa, Phoenix, Atlanta (2012), and Seattle. Known for delivering the Mother Standard® of care and Patient Empowerment Medicine®, CTCA provides cancer patients and their loved ones with information about cancer and their treatment options so they can participate in critical treatment decisions.
For more information on CTCA, please contact:
Corporate Headquarters
1336 Basswood Road
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Kristin Schaner
Tel: 847 342.6454
Email: kristin.schaner(at)ctca-hope(dot)com
Web: http://www.cancercenter.com
About Patients Beyond Borders
Patients Beyond Borders, based in Chapel Hill, NC, publishes books, eBooks, video, online, mobile, and social networking information and applications for healthcare consumers seeking the best global options in medical care. Its flagship international title, Patients Beyond Borders, soon to be published in its Third Edition, is the world’s leading consumer reference guide for medical tourism. Country Editions, City Editions, and Facility Editions help healthcare consumers make informed choices in searching, vetting, and obtaining safe, high-quality, affordable healthcare around the world.
For more information or media queries, please contact:
Judy Orchard, communications manager
Tel: +1 919 924.0636
Email: jorchard(at)patientsbeyondborders(dot)com
Web: http://www.patientsbeyondborders.com
Note: Qualified members of the media are invited to request a review copy of FOCUS ON: Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Patients Beyond Borders: Second Edition, or any other title from our growing library. Please contact jorchard(at)patientsbeyondborders(dot)com.
###
Judy Orchard
Patients Beyond Borders
(919) 924.0636
Email Information