Dear Radiation Oncology Insider,
Many members of the Radiation Oncology Digital Community equate the month of June with the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Although chemotherapy is predominantly the focus of this meeting, significant announcements about radiation therapy are also made.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic presented some impressive survival statistics for patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer treated at the institution. Click here to read about its protocol.
In addition, researchers from Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto announced that radiation therapy can extend survival for advanced prostate cancer patients -- read about this treatment contribution by clicking here. But it's not without the risk of bone fractures, according to a report from contributing writer Edward Susman, who attended the American Urological Association's annual meeting. Click here to learn more.
Perhaps it was the venue, but compared to the four-year results of the MammoSite Breast Brachytherapy Registry Trial announced at the 2008 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting, the four-year results of the TARGIT-A clinical trial did not attract much attention from the medical media. The TARGIT-A trial is the subject of this newsletter's Insider Exclusive, which you're receiving several days in advance of other readers.
Would these findings motivate your practice to offer targeted intraoperative radiation therapy to breast cancer patients who qualify? Let us know what you think. We may publish a follow-up article of AuntMinnie.com readers' opinions.
Finally, because this newsletter issue's focus seems to be on professional meetings, don't overlook comprehensive coverage of presentations on image-guided radiation therapy that were made at the annual SPIE Medical Imaging conference held earlier this year in San Diego. Medicalphysicsweb editor Tami Freeman attended and reports here.
