Pat’s Place: Radiation Oncology Has Come A Long Way In Four Years!
As you may already know, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma four years ago, and part of my early therapy was to radiate several large lesions located up and down my spine.
I was initially treated at a state-of-the-art facility outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Treatment consisted of a twenty minute session under a huge, rotating robot-like machine, for ten days.
Twice the machine broke down before or during my treatment. Once I was forced to impatiently lie on the table for over two hours waiting for my treatment to resume. They never did get the equipment working until the next Monday.
Just as inconvenient was the travel time we needed to get to and from the state-of-the-art medical center. The last thing you want to do when you are tired and sick is to endure a forty minute drive through traffic.
But the results were good. My lesions—soft tumors made up of myeloma cells—shrank like magic, allowing my bones to start to heal.
Now my myeloma is back and active. A PET scan recently found a new, golf ball-sized lesion in my right hip.
The short term solution? Radiation.
My first consult was with a radiation oncologist who specializes in hematological cancers. I was more than impressed with him. But if I used him and his facilities at Moffitt Cancer Center north of Tampa, I would be forced to drive myself more than an hour each way.
Several of my fellow support group members offered to drive me to appointments, which would have helped. But once they heard I would be treated so far away, both sheepishly decided they couldn’t help.
I titled this column, “Radiation Oncology Has Come A Long Way In Four Years!” Now that you know the back story, let me tell you how and why.
Instead of traveling a long way to a state-of-the-art facility, I learned that this time around I only need to drive ten minutes to a smaller, local Florida Cancer Institute office.
Improvement #1: Except for the most difficult cases, a patient doesn’t need to travel to a large cancer center far away from their home to receive radiation. They can now receive their treatments at a local center.
And that’s what I did at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. I experienced my first radiation treatment in four years. I immediately noticed the equipment works similarly to the one back in Minnesota, except it is about one half the size.
Improvement #2: Today’s equipment is more exact, and does far less damage to surrounding tissue than equipment in previous years.
For a while, it looked like radiation oncology was going to become a thing of the past. At the very least, applications for the science were starting to stall.
But not now. Radiation oncology has been making a big-time comeback over the past few years. Thanks to innovations like the new CyberKnife machines, oncologists are finding lots of new ways to use radiation to knock cancer down.
Which brings us to Improvement #3: Equipment is becoming more powerful. While smaller equipment is appropriate for most applications like mine, a new generation of larger, more powerful “super machines” is being introduced.
Finally, Improvement #4 may be the most important of all: Research is helping develop combination therapies that use chemotherapy and radiation. Sometimes these combinations involve the equipment I have been describing, others use radioactive “seeds” or surgical implants to attack cancer from the inside out.
Radiation alone won‘t control my recurring multiple myeloma. But it should help shrink the growth of the largest of my myeloma lesions. And that’s good news. Isn’t modern medicine amazing?
Feel good and keep smiling! Pat
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Pat: Thank you for sharing your interesting story re: radiation as it applies to Myeloma. All the best for your continued treatment. Sean
What she said!:) I understand that UAMS/MIRT doesn't shy away from radiological treatment, when appropriate. The only caveat I heard, as Lori suggested, was with regard to successful stem cell collection.
I understand UAMS isn't big on using radiation... But it helped the pain and knocked it down (at least in the spots that were radiated) last time- Pat
It is true the improvements being made in the use of radiation for treatment of cancer. UAMS prefers to just get the patient in treatment as the radiation is only addressing a symptom of the disease. The bigger issue for them is the stem cell collection since they go for six transplant worth of cells, i.e., 20 Million. Radiation being used as a front line treatment therapy of the lesions creates future potential problems for the collection process, as does some of the other treatments as well. Having said all of that, Dave received IMMEDIATE pain relief from the radiation he received on the lesion that caused his compression fracture in his T8 vertebrae. Not knowing any of the ramifications at the time, it seemed quite miraculous. He couldn't get up or walk at all on his own, and after one treatment was able to get out of bed and take a shower! Dave only wanted more. It brought him such relief.
Please read this NYTimes article. This is the same machine used to treat my myeloma lesions in 2010, which my radiologist had also read and was uncomfortable discussing with me. Best of luck --
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/health/24radiation.html?pagewanted=1
Pat-
I also had local radiation for lesions that also shrank like magic. However there was a fair amount of damage to the surrounding nerves. This nerve damage dramatically effects how my lower body works. Are you doing anything to minimize the side effects of the radiation?
Great post, thanks.
David Emerson
Scary stuff, Adskan! Thanks for the link--very helpful. And David, what do you think I should be doing to minimize the side effects of the radiation? Short term? Long term? Sounds like possible follow-up column... Pat
HBOT has been found to have significant healing qualities at the cellular level where radiation damages the cancer and the healthy cells. I'll send you the paper.
Lori-
What does HBOT stand for? Me and our readers want to know! Pat
Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment
For those interested in finding out more about hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT), you can read the opinion piece that Lori wrote. In the article, she describes Dave's experiences with HBOT and stem cell collection. Her article also includes a link to a journal article describing research on HBOT and stem cell mobilization.
http://www.myelomabeacon.com/opinion/2011/01/11/stem-cell-collection-and-hyperbaric-oxygen-treatment/
Lori-
I read your column about that... Just wasn't familiar with the acronym. Thanks- Pat
Pat,
I just read the article, the treatment can be worrisome, but I know it works. The tumor in my c-2 couldn't be removed by surgery, so radiation was my only choice.I was already in an extreme amount of pain (can we say Percocet 1-2 tabs every six hours), due to the pressure on the spinal cord. I did 22 treatments, 5 days a week. It was done at Wright-Patterson AFB, I'm including the name to let people know what a great facility this is. They really care about there patients. But to get on, the treatment left me very weak and tired, but it worked the tumor is dead. That was back in May and June. In July they did a Bone Marrow Biopsy, it turned out that I also had 70 percent plasma cell count in the marrow. I immediately stated Chemo Velcade, Cytoxin, and Dexamethasone; once a week for four months. It took from it from 70% to 0% plasma in my in my marrow and I was ready for my transplant. I had my Stem Cell Harvesting after all this treatment and the transplant worked like I told you earlier. My point is, the radiation doesn't hinder your harvesting chances. My neck is now reduced to an ache, although I still need a Vicodin a couple of times a week to sleep; but I can now read a book and use my laptop. It was to painful before. I am happy, I have my gardening back; can get back to renovating my house. Life's good.
I'm so happy things have turned around for you, Deidre! My harvest took 12 days, plus three more to clear-up an infected line. Glad yours went so well. My docs still blame the radiation for my difficult harvest. Who knows? Pat
Hi Pat, just wondering if you or anyone else for that matter has experience receiving radiation with cyberknife. I saw my Neurological surgeon this week to follow up on my spine fusion surgery and to keep an eye on vertebrae that still have myeloma lesions. He said his group will be receiving the cyberknife machine soon and thought I would be a good candidate to do some targeted radiation on the spine. Doing some on line research but I can’t find any info relating to myeloma patients using the cyberknife technology.
I have wondered the same thing. My radiation has come by more conventional means both times. It's possible Cyberknife is a bit of "overkill"... More exacting than is necessary for most myeloma related work.
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