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Regional Cancer Care has, since March 31, been treating prostate cancer patients with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). “The implementation of IMRT into Regional Cancer Care Northwest means patients living in Northwestern Ontario have access to the best standard of radiation treatment,” Dr. Terry Sullivan said Wednesday. Sullivan, chief executive officer of Cancer Care Ontario, was in Thunder Bay to congratulate RCC for being an early adopter of IMRT. It has also bought a Neo2000 gamma detection device, a state-of-the-art system surgeons can use when performing biopsies on breast cancer patients. It will soon be getting a positron emission scanner (PET) with which a radiologist can determine if a mass is a tumour or scar tissue, and if it is a tumour, whether it‘s malignant or benign. “Because of great commitment from our radiation therapy team and robust investments in equipment, we are early out of the gates in implementing IMRT, offering our patients access to the most advanced radiation treatment available,” said Michael Power, vice-president of regional cancer and diagnostic services. The IMRT focus initially will be on prostate cancer while head, neck and breast cancers will be treated by mid-2009, said Dr. Sunil Gulavita, co-ordinator of radiation therapy. IMRT is an advanced mode of high-precision radiation that delivers precise radiation doses to a malignant tumor, or specific areas within the tumor, with minimal side effects. The radiation dose is designed to focus on the tumor while minimizing radiation exposure to surrounding tissue. Such equipment is important in an area like the Northwest where the 2008 Cancer System Quality Index showed the region has the highest rates per capita in the province of breast, lung, prostate and colon cancer. “You‘re not doing well on risk factor behaviour,” Sullivan said. “We could bring down the numbers if we could get smoking rates down, get people toward a healthy body weight and make sure we have modest drinking habits.” RCC statistics show there will be 1,185 projected new cancer cases in the Northwest in 2008-09 and 493 deaths. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |