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Saturday, May 04, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

New treatment for cancer now in Las Vegas

Computer analyzes best way to zap tumors while avoiding damage to healthy tissues

A cutting-edge cancer treatment once offered only at the country's major cancer centers is now available in Las Vegas.

The treatment, known as Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, is expected to increase survival rates and reduce some of the more debilitating side effects of radiation therapy, said Dr. Jeffrey Wong, head of the division of radiation oncology for City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer center in Southern California.

For patients with prostate cancer, the $1.5 million system, including equipment and software, can minimize side effects such as impotence, incontinence and other rectal or bladder problems. For brain cancer or head and neck cancer patients, the therapy can help prevent blindness, hearing loss, or other problems that can arise when areas of the brain are damaged by radiation.

"This is some of the newest technology available to physicians and patients," Wong said. "Some use the term revolutionary, and I think that's appropriate."

Nevada Radiation Oncology Centers and its affiliate, Southwest Cancer Clinic, began offering the treatment last month.

"The goal of radiation is to give a high enough dose to the tumor to cure it, but to limit the dose to the healthy tissues around it," said Dr. Andrew Cohen, a radiation oncologist at Nevada Radiation Oncology Centers. "If you could give an infinite radiation dose to a tumor and not bother tissues around it, then theoretically you could cure anything."

The therapy uses high-tech equipment combined with a computer software program to break up radiation beams and better control the aim and dose of the radiation. The beams are broken into multiple, smaller segments while the computer decides how best to aim the radiation to zap the tumor and minimize exposure to surrounding tissues.

"The computer looks at millions of different ways to arrange the beams in order to figure out the best possible way to give the radiation," Cohen said. "We're using it on a gentleman with brain cancer. We can spare some of the riskier parts of the brain. There are nerves that control vision and hearing that you need to be very careful not to give too much radiation."

So far, two Las Vegas patients have received the treatment and Cohen expects to add more next week. He plans to use the therapy for patients with prostate cancer, breast cancer, brain cancer and certain head and neck cancers.

Patient Donald Hosterman, 73, began receiving the radiation therapy for his prostate cancer in early April.

"I feel some side effects, but they are minor," Hosterman said. "I've had some diarrhea and some difficulty urinating, but so far, it's been really minor. I've needed no medicines to treat any problems."

Although the new treatment is more expensive it's covered by most insurance carriers because of the increased chance of killing the tumor and because fewer side effects mean less money spent on drugs to combat them, Cohen said.

An estimated 4,100 Nevadans will die from cancer this year and another 9,500 will be diagnosed with the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. Approximately 1,400 Nevadans will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and 200 will die from the disease.