Atlanta


On April 26, 1999, Nancy Worthen became a statistic. She was one of the U.S. women-more than 180,000 annually-diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.
    About 44,000 of these women die from breast cancer each year. Its incidence increases with age and seems related to environmental exposure. Genetic risks also play a role.
    After being diagnosed, Mrs. Worthen learned about alternatives in therapy and started writing a newsletter for 120 friends who were closely following her progress. Today she continues to educate others about therapy choices, and her newsletter, "KEEPING ABREAST," is available on the Varian Medical Systems website, www.varian.com (click on Patient Education).

Varian's CadPlan PLUS/Helios software is an inverse treatment-planning tool that enables clinics to develop optimized plans for delivering IMRT to patients like Nancy Worthen. It enables physicians to target precise doses at cancerous tumors while protecting surrounding healthy tissues. Patient anatomies and treatment areas are shown using 3D images.
Nancy Worthen, breast cancer survivor, feels very lucky to have received IMRT. When informed of her treatment options, however, she admits being apprehensive about the effects of radiation. With conventional radiation therapy, great care must be taken to avoid skin effects similar to sunburn, such as redness, blistering, itchiness, weepy sores, or peeling. Mrs. Worthen says that she had not known about the IMRT alternative. "Fortunately, my surgeon knew of Dr. Rad's work using IMRT to treat breast cancer at Emory University," she says.
    "Dr. Rad" is Mrs. Worthen's nickname for Jerome Landry, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and head of the clinical IMRT program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is an expert in the use of Varian's SmartBeam IMRT systems.

"I believe IMRT will move into the mainstream of medicine quickly."
    Dr. Joseph Ting,
    Emory University,
    Atlanta, Georgia

From left: Mrs. Nancy Worthen,
Dr. Joseph Ting and Dr. Jerome Landry
    IMRT uses computer-generated images to plan and deliver more focused radiation to tumors than is currently possible with conventional cobalt or whole beam radiation. Physicians can draw and paint a precise radiation dose to the shape of the tumor while significantly reducing the harmful side effects of radiation on surrounding healthy tissue. IMRT also allows physicians to apply a more uniform radiation dose to the breast tumor, a challenge because of the varying tissue density and thickness in the breast itself.
    "IMRT permits doctors to conserve the breast and provide a better cosmetic outcome," Dr. Landry says. "With 30 to 40 percent of all breast cancer patients undergoing a course of radiation therapy during the course of their disease, this technology fosters a safer method to treat the tumor with a higher radiation dose."
    Joseph Ting, Ph.D., the medical physicist on Worthen's healthcare team, agrees with Dr. Landry. He has seen the inclusion of IMRT into new treatment protocols for breast, prostate, pancreatic, and head and neck cancers over the past few years.
    "IMRT treats the cancer with significantly fewer radiation side effects than with conventional radiotherapy," says Dr. Ting. "I believe it will move into the mainstream of medicine quickly and will be adopted rapidly not only by university medical centers, but also by community hospitals as a standard of care to reach more patients."