ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605060040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
A NEW RADIATION MACHINE cuts the treatment time for cancer patients from a 48-hour hospital stay to 20 minutes of outpatient care.
Lewis-Gale Medical Center showed off a new machine Friday that will make it possible for some cancer patients to get radiation treatments on their lunch hour.
Despite its lengthy name, the Nucletron-Oldelft microSelectron High Dose Afterloader can do in 20 minutes what now requires a two-day hospital stay, said Dr. David Randolph, medical director of the radiation oncology department at Lewis-Gale.
Purchase of the high-dose radiation machine, at a cost of $450,000, is part of a $2.5 million expansion of the department.
The machine is especially effective in the treatment of inoperable cervical cancer, but not limited to that form of cancer, he said. Cancer of the esophagus is another candidate for the high-dose treatment, which causes less damage to healthy tissue and organs and has fewer side effects than the low-dose radiation procedure, Randolph said.
Currently, the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville is the nearest facility with high-dose rate brachytherapy, according to Randolph. He expects the new machine to attract a few more patients to Lewis-Gale, but said its main value is in making treatment easier for patients. Cost of the high-dose treatment is comparable to the low-dose cost, he said.
The procedure of sending radiation through wires to a tumor site is called brachytherapy. High-dose brachytherapy delivers the radiation into or close to the diseased area through a small catheter.
Because the catheter that delivers the radiation is so small, it can be inserted while the patient remains in the oncology office. For low-dose brachytherapy, the catheter must be inserted in an operating room with the patient under general anesthesia.
During the low-dose treatment, a patient also must lie as still as possible.
"It's two days on your back," Randolph said.
However, he said he does not expect all eligible patients to opt for the quicker treatment, especially those who have to travel a far distance. For those patients, the more trips needed for the new treatment might be a problem.
It takes four or five treatments from the high-dose machine to equal two low-dose, 48-hour in-hospital treatments, he said.
Randolph is in private practice, but he has his office at Lewis-Gale and has been under contract to the Lewis-Gale cancer center for seven years. He is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and Eastern Virginia Medical School and completed a residency in family medical at the University of Virginia and one in radiology oncology at the Medical College of Virginia.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff Chief Radiation Therapist Helenby CNBLovern and Medical Physicist Robert Glossner show off the new
radiation machine for cancer patients. color