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 ProtonPals Newsletter
Am I Cured? |
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Don't Forget
ProtonPals on FB
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Join your Pals at the Wednesday night dinners. The locations rotate among various restaurants in the Houston Medical Center area. See the schedule at the reception desk.  Click the icon above for Proton Center Facebook Page in order to see Wednesday Night dinners schedules and other News. Tell your ProtonPal friends about Joe's House to find housing in the Medical Center area. This link is also on the website and on MDACC website.
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 | Happy Labor Day.
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Greetings!
HOUSTON, TX:
This summer the newsletter staff (:>) is on a vacation and the articles will be short but hopefully helpful. I hope you have a safe and fun Labor Day.
This month we have a special treat. One of our ProtonPals wrote a paper for you about high energy protons and we're very pleased to publish it on the ProtonPals website. He'd like to hear from you and if you'd like to keep the discussion going that would be great, I've added a bit about some of the first cyclotrons dating to early 1900s. The first half of the 20th century was definitely an age of discovery in physics as you can see from this timeline. AGE OF DISCOVERY
September promises to be a busy month with the following meetings and conferences:
- Anderson Cancer Survivorship Conference on September 14-15th,
- Prostate Health Conference on Saturday. September 22nd
- Dave Stevens is giving his 8th talk on September 26th to the Wednesday morning Beam News Meeting in the large conference rooms 1 and 2 (PTC1.1124 & PTC1.1128).
- Wednesday morning Beam News meetings with different speakers each week (PTC1.1124 & PTC1.1128).
- On Thursday September 27th from 1:00 to 2:30 pm a talk on "Nutrition and Prostate Cancer" will be presented by Vicki Piper a senior clinical technician with Anderson.
While I was searching for a precise definition of prostate cancer staging I found that a multi-disciplinary team including Dr. Lee and Dr. Choi published a 10 page prostate cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines earlier this year. In addition to the one on prostate cancer, there are a large number of tools and guidelines for over 14 cancer categories like brain, breast, gastrointestinal, etc. and 49 tumor types at the site. If you've had prostate cancer treatment and your PSA is less than 1 after radiation or 0.1 or less after surgery you're considered a survivor and there's a set of guidelines for you. Survivorship. September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness month and US Too 's HotSheet list several fund raiser events along with a series of interesting articles. You can read more/subscribe at US Too International HotSheet. Prostate Cancer Research Institute is holding it's 2012 Prostate Cancer Conference at the airport Marriott in Los Angeles, California on September 7-9, 2012. The conference faculty is made up of a dozen or so well known names in the field of prostate cancer treatment like Drs. Charles Myers, Stephen Strum, Mark Scholz and William Aronsen. (see faculty)
You can follow the activities of the Proton Center by joining Facebook and liking both the Proton Center and the ProtonPals.
If you're in Houston around the times of the conferences please plan to join Dave, Drew, Peter, Mike, me and other Pals from the Houston area.
In Gratitude,
Joe Landry and your ProtonPals team.
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Another Renaisance ProtonPal
|  High Tech Physics from a Hi-Tech Texan
 Y ou can download John Herbster's paper and read it entirely at Protons. He invites you to contact him and hope to start a discussion in the these scientific areas.
A Biographical Note about ProtonPal John When Houstonian John Herbster heard a radio advertisement spot about proton therapy he knew he had to learn more about this new prostate cancer treatment. You see John's had an early interest in science and a career background that is very diverse, and he just had to investigate the treatment.
John was tinkering and building electronics early in his junior high days. He went to a historic (1935) high school in Houston and on graduation enrolled at the University of Texas where he worked his way through college managing a mass spectrometer lab for the chemistry department.
His career path took him to the local space industry where he worked for Hughes Aircraft designing electronics for the surveyor moon lander. Later assignments included studying at computer science at Purdue, developing software for missile projects for Boeing and the Panama Canal and before retirement working for several years in the Shell's Companies' research and development department.
Currently his interests take him to a small ranch he owns in the "dark sky" area of the Davis Mountains near the Big Bend National Park. (Read more about the International Dark Sky Parks) Among the ProtonPals volunteers, we very often make note of how we get to meet such interesting men and women at the MDACC Proton Therapy Center as they travel to Houston and stay with for a few weeks. These include men (and women) from all walks of life. John is one of them. He's written a paper for us where he's explored the presence of protons in our every day environment.  | | Aurora over Yellowknife, NWT |
As I read up and prepared to write these few introductory sentences, I learned how cosmic rays are made up of roughly 90% high energy protons and when they stream towards us from space and meet our atmosphere you get some effects that are mysterious and wondrous to see. "When we consider thy wondrous heavens and all the works of thy hand We bow in your presence our hands lift in reverence" Joe Landry August 2012
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| Looking for More Information from M.D. Anderson Web Sites ? | Newly Diagnosed?
In support of Dave Stevens' talk in September we're posting some links to some newly published information on the M.D. Anderson website. It's the 10 page PDF document located here ( Prostate Cancer Clinical Practice Algorithms 2012) developed specifically by and for MD Anderson. The page on initial diagnosis is presented here as a lead in. I recommend you print out the whole document in case you need it for discussion with your doctor. I've also attached a chart on Prostate Cancer Staging in case you need to understand for example "what is a cT2a?" (The prefix c used in the guidelines means clinical rather than p for pathological.)
 | | Initial Diagnosis |
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| Are You in Survivorship Mode? | |
Survivorship Clinical Guidelines
Please read and consider the following. We provide links to the guidelines for your information.
These clinical practice algorithms have been specifically developed by and for MD Anderson using a multidisciplinary approach and taking into consideration circumstances particular to MD Anderson, including the following: MD Anderson's specific patient population; our services and structure; and our clinical information. Moreover, these algorithms are not intended to replace the independent medical or professional judgment of physicians or other health care providers
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| ProtonPals Website Traffic |
 | | July Traffic showing year over year growth |
Geometric Growth
The traffic to the website continues to grow each month as more links are made to our site and additional visitors use it for information. Thanks to you we've been able to feature your stories and feedback on how you're doing.
As all of you realize it's a world wide web (www) and many visitors to the site come from 80 countries across the globe. For the month of the July the country with the most visitors, as you would expect, was the United States followed by China, Mexico, Brazil,Czech Republic and France respectively. Each unique visitor makes an average of 2 1/2 visits per month and pages which are read total over 27,000 for July 2012. I'm sure some of this "reading" is done by software robots (Bots) and the information copied to a news feed or put to some other use, while we measure unique visitors who eyeballs and not a Bot.
This increase in traffic is driven by several factors and these are 1) the site is listed on several places on the websites of the main Anderson Campus and Proton Center M.D. Anderson website, 2) the search engines, primarily Google (with 78% of use), refer users to the website, 3) other forums who list the ProtonPals website and 4) the growth of references to the Pals on Facebook.
Another item that is hard to confirm and is mostly it's a gut feel - when a country starts to consider building a new proton center and announces this, the traffic from that country's URL domain increases significantly. I can't confirm if or how the information is used professionally or other wise.
We've been able to afford this service, thanks to volunteer work as well as the generosity of both individual Proton Pals together with annual mini-grants from a large oil company as well as the extraordinary low cost of the Internet technology and service. The technology costs are driven no doubt by competition and the developments in the semiconductor technology. (a discussion on Moore's law on the doubling of semiconductor density every 2 years and unfettered capitalism is outside the scope of this article.) |
Anderson Network's Survivorship Conference
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Several Pals Will Be There
This will be my 4th Conference and each succeeding one has been bigger and better with the 2011 attendance at around 600. This year, we'll get to hear Anderson's new president, Dr. Ronald DePinho in a panel speak about his vision for the Cancer Center, status of new research and answer questions we'll pose about PSA testing.
- Anderson Network's 24th annual Cancer Survivorship Conference
- Friday, Sept. 14-Saturday, Sept. 15 at the Omni Houston Hotel Westside.
- Susan G. Baker, wife of former secretary of state James A. Baker III and an ovarian cancer survivor treated at MD Anderson, is keynote speaker
- Cost of conference is just $50, which includes all activities, meals and self-parking, if you register by Sept. 7. Registration available the day of the conference for $60.
- To register, visit the conference site at To Register Online or call 713-792-2553.
The conference includes nearly two dozen informative breakout sessions, including:
- risks and benefits of vitamin and mineral supplements for cancer patients,managing treatment side effects,
- issues of young adult survivors,
- the healing power of journaling,
- making the most of your medicines during cancer care and
- the popular medical panel will present an overview of their research and answer questions from the audience. It includes Ronald DePinho, M.D., president of MD Anderson; Holly Holmes. M.D., assistant professor in the Department of General Internal Medicine; and Karen Lu, M.D., professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine.
Other keynote speakers are Richard Lee, M.D., medical director of the Integrative Medicine Program, and Shelby Robin, pediatric nurse and cancer survivor. Violinist and cancer survivor Treesa Gold will provide entertainment at the banquet on Sept. 14.
For more information or to register, check the conference website or call 713-792-2553 in Houston, 800-345-6324 toll free.
The Anderson Network, an organization with support and educational services for patients/survivors, their families and caregivers, is a program of the Department of Volunteer Services
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MORE Answers to Questions on Proton Therapy topics hard to find information About
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 | | ProtonPals Director Dave Stevens. |
Pal-to-Pal Education by the Lupron Legionnaire in Chief, Dave Stevens
For over a year, Dave has studied many medical articles on various aspects of Prostate Cancer and given 7 previous slide presentations which he has reviewed with his doctor beforehand. At the Beam News Presentation on Wednesday, September 26 at 10:00am to 11:30am in the Large Conference Room at the Proton Therapy Center, Dave will share his experiences with proton treatment and being on Hormone Therapy for two years to treat his Gleason 9. He plans to answer as many of the following questions as time will permit:
- What warning signs should I be on the lookout for about my PSA after finishing Proton Therapy? What if my PSA goes back up after I have had Proton Therapy? Does it mean that Protons did not work?
- What if my PSA goes up, but my testosterone stays down?
- For the past few years, my PSA was pretty flat, but now it is going up. What does that mean? Is it possible for my PSA to go up years after my proton treatments?
- Over 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. What percentage of them have their PSA go back up enough that it's called "PSA Failure"?
- How long does it take for the protons to kill the cancer? What if they don't? What is the "Plan B"?
- What if my cancer spreads to another part of my body?
- Does it matter what my Gleason score is? Is there any difference between a Gleason 7 (4+3) and a Gleason 7 (3+4)?
- My doctor wants me on hormone therapy, but I don't like what I've hear about side effects. What's the benefit of hormone therapy?
- If Proton Therapy kills the cancer, why do some men have to have hormone therapy?
- Are there any side effects from Proton Therapy after I've "rung the gong"?
- Since I've been on Lupron, I'm having ED, mood swings, hot flashes and I just feel like sitting in my recliner all day. Does this happen to anyone else?
- I finished my six months of Lupron two weeks ago, but I still have my hot flashes and the other side effects. Is something wrong? Am I going to be having hot flashes forever?
- I know MD Anderson has a great reputation. What do they do here at the Proton Center that's different from what goes on at every other proton facility?
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Advanced Prostate Cancer
| | Faced With Recurrence of PCa?
Here's a resource with questions and answers from 3 doctors with an easy to use format which we hope to emulate at some point with our, "Ask Dave." Dr. Espinosa, Dr. Myers and Dr. Lantini present questions which were posed to them and publish their answers given to individuals. These are typically for agressive and recurrent prostate cancer.
As we mention in our disclaimer on the ProtonPals website main home page, we provide these websites for your for your interest and information purposes only. We don't guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. Furthermore the inclusion of these links to particular sites and information are not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any of these views expressed or products or services offered on these outside sites,or the organization sponsoring the sites. You should ALWAYS consult your Proton Center Doctor if you have any questions about your prostate cancer, or about what you read here or elsewhere on this topic. The reasons is that your Proton Center Doctor has seen you and diagnosed your condition and knows what your specific medical situation is.
Ask A Question
The primary University of Texas M.D. Anderson website has a feature called "ASK A QUESTION
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Glass, Sealing Wax and Bronze
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 | | Ernest Lawrence 1st Cyclotron 1931 |
The First Proton Merry Go Round
Treating cancer with Protons is a relatively new therapy, having come into its own beginning in the 1990's. However, sub-atomic particles in general and protons in particular have been subjects of research and study for a very long time. During the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, atomic scientists worked on studying the composition of matter and relied on naturally occurring radiation for some of their experimental work; as they fired alpha and beta radiation at various elements. Radiation occurs naturally but found in some minerals in very low concentrations. For example you could get useful amounts of radium for research and eventually medical use only with a tremendous amount of work since it's found in trace amounts (1/7 of a gram per ton) of pitchblende a uranium ore. If you've read how Pierre and Marie Curie went through tons of pitchblende (uranium ore) to separate a few grams of radium for their experiments, you'll have an appreciation for their dedication.
The early atomic scientists identified the universal building blocks of the atom starting with the electron (called a corpuscle) by J.J. Thomson in 1897. He concluded that atoms were divisible and that corpuscles were their building blocks. Only the weight of the electron was so light he knew there was something else in the atom. One model of the atom at the time was named the "plum pudding model" - with the negative electrons embedded in a soup of positive charges like plums in a plum pudding. This was an early harbinger of additional discoveries and proposal of the solar-system-like Bohr model of the atom.
The other building block, the proton, was named in 1920 by Ernest Rutherford, one of Thomson's students. Protons could be found free and stable existing in plasma or where temperatures were high enough to separate them from the electrons. Protons have a larger mass (part of the other weight of the atom) and a positive charge. The Proton Center has a plentiful source of protons for proton therapy, which they get by stripping away the electrons and neutrons from hydrogen atoms found in a small cylinder of hydrogen gas. Sort of inconsistent to see a 1/2 sized cylinder of compressed hydrogen next to this hughe synchrotron and to learn that it supplies the center for months.
In 1920 Ernest Rutherford conceived of the existence of the neutron and it was in 1932 the James Chadwick performed a series of experiments at Cambridge verifying his suggestion that an uncharged particle with the mass of the proton was part of the nucleus and they were called neutrons. Now they had a powerful bullet that could fired at elements to split atoms. Since neutrons don't have a charge they can't be accelerated with a cyclotron or linear accelerator. Instead high velocity neutrons are produced as a result of spallation; high energy protons from an accelerator are aimed to hit a target material (tantalum or depleted uranium) will produce neutrons. A process similar to what happens in X-ray tubes where electrons collide with tungsten, molybdenum or copper to produce X-rays. It's more commonly known that high energy neutrons are produced in nuclear fission reactors where sustained chain reactions are used to generate electric power like the one powering the NASA Mars rover Curiosity.
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Robert Stone and John Lawrence, Ernest's brother who was an medical doctor, treat a patient with protons from Berkeley's 60 inch cyclotron.
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The first proton medical treatments were performed with particle accelerators (cyclotron) built for physics research most notably at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in 1954 and eventually at Harvard. Almost 3000 (1400 were for cancer) patients were treated at Berkeley Labs with the 60-inch cyclotron and the Bevalac.(a heavy ion accelerator). Over time it became evident that heavier beams of neon and carbon were the most effective at treating certain types of cancers that were not responsive to conventional therapies or involved greater radiation doses to surrounding normal tissues.
 | | RAD Lab Scientists with Lawrence's Cyclotron |
For all it's association with student demonstrations and activism beginning with the Vietnam War almost 50 years ago, the University of California at Berkeley has enjoyed an outstanding and worldwide reputation in science for nearly a century. The University faculty, alumni and researchers have won 70 Nobel Prizes with 13 Nobel Laureates in physics and discovered 6 new chemical elements in the atomic periodic table including one named Berkelium. The other elements are Californium, Seaborgium, Einsteinium, Fermium, and Lawrencium.
The scientist who set the stage for much of the experimental physics work and the labs at Berkeley was Earnest O. Lawrence who in 1932 built and patented the cyclotron. Earnest started with a 5 inch device you could hold in your hand to one that was 60 inches in diameter and had enormous magnets as shown in the picture above. Canada has one of the largest cyclotron in the world located in the British Columbia TRIUMF national laboratory. It has magnets weighing roughly 4000 tons and the diameter is nearly 60 feet. The Cyclotron According to Wikipedia. Locally, the M.D. Anderson Proton Center's accelerator is a synchrotron which produces 250 + MEV beams and unlike cyclotrons does not have large magnets as part of it's design. In addition to medical research, the Center has supported it's share of research in the past 6 years. In addition to the four rooms used in clinical treatments it has a 5th room at the end of the beam line, a research bay that has been used by NASA.
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About the ProtonPals Organization
Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter and using the ProtonPals website. We won't sell or give your addresses to anyone. You'll receive one or at most two mailings a month from us. If you're a new subscriber you may want to note that the past newsletters are archived back to May 2009. Newsletter Archives
We're a group who chose proton beam therapy to cure their cancer and were treated at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Proton Therapy Center in Houston, Texas. The "Pals" formed a network in order to:
Stay up to date with treatment cure resultsProvide support to others and Center activitiesBe informed on any side- effectsPromote 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
Support ProtonPals by letting us know how you're doing. That is so important to newly diagnosed men and their wives and partners. As a former patient we'd all welcome your help in getting the word out about proton radiation and how you're doing. Please donate using the Donate Icon below or mail a check made out to ProtonPals, Ltd.(we're a tax deductible non-profit) at my home address. Read more about about it on the website How to Help - Giving
Sincerely,
Joe Landry, Founder
ProtonPals, Ltd.
ProtonPals, Ltd. is a 501 (c) (3) public charity incorporated in Texas.
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DISCLAIMERS ProtonPals is an exclusively patient-sponsored organization with no official relationship with or support by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center or the M.D. Anderson Proton Therapy Center. ProtonPals is simply an information sharing network of patients. ProtonPals hopes to inform, encourage and help patients through shared knowledge. Members are not doctors so more serious concerns should be directed directly to your doctor. ProtonPals also desires to promote the M. D. Anderson Proton Therapy Center as for virtually everyone it has been a very positive if not life saving experience. The ProtonPals web-site, commonly known as the ProtonPals.net weblog, will contain hypertext links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for your convenience. ProtonPals does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. Further the inclusion of these links to particular items in hypertext are not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any of these views expressed or products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organization sponsoring the sites.
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