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ProtonPals e Newsletter
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May 2009
http://protonpals.net
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Greetings!
We're happy to have you as a member of our brotherhood and hope you like the new e-Newsletter service. We're still working with it including following up on some emails that bounced and finding a way to archive all of newsletters for easy access. If you know of a friend who's not getting the newsletter and would like to subscribe there's an easy way to do it, listed below. We really would like to hear from you for a couple of reasons - To help out the next guy who's following in our footsteps looking for information.
- To make the newsletter and website much more interesting and relevant.
Several of the Pals have networked over the past 2 years to provide support and to serve you. Let us know how you're doing so we can pass this on to the next generation of newly diagnosed patients. Currently I'm looking for survivors who are in their forties who would like to volunteer to be a man-to-man contact on our hotlist. Our ProtonPals are of a certain age and this weekend I needed a reference for someone in their 40s. It's almost a certainty that if you're young and physically fit your recovery will be shorter and the side effects will be milder or non existent but it would be super to have a testimonial for this young man. We did have a guy who ran a triathlon very soon after finishing his treatment. We also need more letter writers for the campaign, enough to keep the Blue Cross/Blue Shield decision at bay.
Sincerely,
Joe Landry and Ban Capron
ProtonPals
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Prostate Patient Group Meeting
Article Subtitle
Amy Stahl, MS.RD,LD the Senior Clinical Dietitian will be the featured speaker at the regular monthly support group meeting to held on Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 1:00 - 2:30 PM in Conference Rooms 1 and 2. Amy will speak about Nutrition and Prostate Cancer and will address some recent news about Selenium and Vitamin E.
The featured talk is usually followed by Q&A and group sharing.
For more information please call:
Sloane Caskey, LCSW
713-563-2362
Lorraine Howard, LMSW
713-792-5134
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Anniversary Reflections by Dr. Jim Cox
Article Subtitle
Last week as the third anniversary of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center (MDACC) -Proton Therapy Center approached, Dr. Jim Cox reflected on the last decades journey. When I asked him to single out two or three items for the ProtonPals, Dr. Cox related a couple
of stories.
The first, he wanted to credit his wife, Dr. Ritsuko
Komaki, with being the driving force behind getting the Southwest it's first proton
center. Dr. Ritsuko
Komaki, a Japanese American world renown oncologist and clinical section chief at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, was born
in Hiroshima in 1941 and as a child lost a close friend at the age of 11 to
radiation affects from the war. As a result Dr. Komaki vowed to become a cancer doctor subsequently realizing her dream. Now she brings the healing rays of radiation to destroy cancer cells. Portrait & State of Tomorrow Profile
Proton therapy with it's
innovative beam of precisely controlled particles causes much less collateral damage.
When Drs. Cox and Komaki became interested in proton therapy and sought out
the leaders in this field, they found at Hitachi another of her classmates from Hiroshima
who had became a principal executive. According to Dr. Cox,
having the knowledge of the culture and the language made all the difference in
contracting and working with one of the center's key vendors to bring the giant synchrotron
and gantries to Houston.
Dr. Cox's other point was the wonderful partnership M. D. Anderson had with
the Styles Company and the Styles family. They were involved with healthcare-related businesses for
38 years prior to partnering with the investment group for the Center and in overseeing the
construction. "They were there every step of the way for the 3
year construction period where the building and the installation of the giant
gantries and synchrotron had to be fitted around each other." The construction
finished a few days ahead of schedule and after commissioning, the first patient
was treated on May 4, 2006.
Current Status - A thousand patients have been treated at the Center with
many of them children. The total number of children treated at the Proton Therapy Center (PTC-H) is more than any center in the world with the exception of Mass General(MGH). MGH's total includes early work with the Harvard Cyclotron Lab(HCL) where clinical use of protons started as early as 1961. Two thirds of PTC-H patients treated had prostate cancer and a record of 109 patients treated in one day was in the last week of April.
Future In talking about a current clinical trial on intensity modulated radiaton therapy (IMRT) vs Proton Therapy, Dr. Cox reviewed how M.D. Anderson was an early adopter of IMRT and has a world class center. The radiation oncologists Dr. Lee and Dr. Choi treated numerous patients in the IMRT radiation clinic before bringing that experience to work at the proton center. Treatments with IMRT for prostate cancer at MDACC is thought by some oncologists to be more effective than the treatment received in other proton centers.
In a study sponsored by National Cancer Institute, Dr. Cox will lead what is the first study to examine the benefits of proton therapy versus conventional therapy for lung cancer. See Concurrent ChemoTherapy It is expected the study will show that proton therapy with concurrent chemotherapy is 20 to 30% more effective than conventional therapy for treating lung tumors; with the primary reason being that patients have fewer instances of bone marrow toxicity than patients receiving IMRT. Treatment Reduces Bone Toxicity
Much is expected of the pencil beam proton therapy system in Gantry 3. It is fully functional and being used to treat prostate cancer. Read More Treatment planning and simulation modules for other tumors, e.g. medulloblastoma, are under intense development by Varian and is expected to be released next. Fully over 15-20 percent of pediatric brain tumors are of this type. In some plans the entire brain has to be radiated and this makes proton beam radiation well suited for this mode.
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ProtonPals First Fellowship Gathering
Article Subtitle
It was called The ProtonPals Fellowship and Staff Appreciation Evening and it happened after many days of serious  planning by three Pals, Hugh (Mr.
Ex) Exnicios, Joe Filler and Larry Hock. Around 110 folks gathered at the Proton Center large conference room at 6 on Wednesday April
22nd for the first big social night. One of
Larry Hock's friends, The BigE Drilling Company drove up with an expert crew, a Texas
sized BBQ grill with all the donated fixings and cooked up the main courses. It
was a marvelous night as Pals got to meet and make new friends as well as
getting to know the staff a little better. The balloon babes are already very familiar with you. We have a slide show of the photographs taken by Joe Filler on the ProtonPals web-site. You can tell from the smiles, the hugs and the food shown in the photos that we ought to do this again and have it as a
regular event. Let me know if you want to help organize this and we'll have a play book and some Houston help to make that happen. Call me at 832-335-0353 or write to Joe Landry |
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Why We Chose M.D. Anderson
Article Subtitle
Ban, Peter and I would like to call your attention to 4 video clips that make a strong case for choosing the center that's consistently top ranked in national surveys. For over six decades, M.D. Anderson has a singular mission of eliminating cancer. The first video about Innovations in Cancer Treatment and one of the segments features Dr. Andrew Lee as he speaks about pencil beam therapy. Innovations in Cancer Treatment- The second video is about pencil beam proton therapy with Dr. James Cox and Dr Andrew K. Lee. Pencil Beam Therapy Video
- The third video features Dr. Ritsuko Komaki clinical section chief and program director of thoracic radiation oncology at MDACC is also about proton therapy. The Cancer Fight, From Hiroshima to Houston
- The fourth video features Dr. Jim Cox head of the department of radiation oncology and a great follow up to the short article on the Center's third anniversary. The Future of Cancer Treatment
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Fred Golfs Everyday
Article Subtitle
Fred K. called the other day to get a copy of Bob Marckini's guide on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield area. As we visited I learned that Fred completed his treatment 3 months ago and is very active both physically and in his "wellness" group where he lives in Tennessee. He golfs every day weather permitting. When he filled out his Quality of Life survey for the PTC, he requested additional ProtonPals brochures and hands these out as he talks to the group about proton therapy treatment in Houston.
Please join Fred to help us build this network of ProtonPals by nurturing and attracting new members. You can do this by recommending the web site and sending the join our mailing list notice your friends, five at a time by using the link below. The website is at ProtonPals Website and you can refer friends from your mailing list by using the easy form.
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Famous ProtonPals
Article Subtitle
The rewarding part of my volunteer's job is getting to meet and know the men and women who come to Houston and the Center for treatment. Over the past 2 plus years I've met some accomplished ProtonPals; persons who are leaders in their fields and captains of industry but yet are so modest about their achievements you may never learn about them until they have finished treatment and returned to their respective cities. After all the disease, the dressing room, the gowns and the balloon tends to be great levelers. One young man who I met in the dressing rooms as he was starting his treatments in 2007 is Hal Howland. Hal's biography is so long you'll have to go to his web site to read it. He's an accomplished composer, musician, author who recently published a novel. Hal lives in the Florida keys, a beautiful and interesting place made even more famous by another author, Pappa Hemingway. One reviewer wrote of Hal's new book, "Howland brings the Key West I know so well to life and captures the essence of the characters that call the end of the road home." Another said, "Hal Howland is a great observer of human nature. He has an uncanny ability to get right to th heart of matters with a dry and subtle wit." Read more about Hal Howland and consider ordering his book. .
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About ProtonPals
Thank you for subscribing to the website and supporting the organization. ProtonPals is a group of men who chose proton beam therapy to cure their prostate cancer and were treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center in Houston, Texas. The "Pals" formed a network of Pals in order to: - Stay up to date with treatment cure results
- Provide support to others and Center activities
- Be informed on any side- effects
- Promote proton radiation since it's widely regarded to have a significant advantage over conventional x-rays.
- Attract and nurture more Pals who support our cause, patient-to-patient and friend-to-friend
Joe Landry and Ban Capron
15806 Manor Square Drive
Houston, Texas 77062 - 4743
ProtonPals, Ltd.I O
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