Cancer

Two Patients Benefit from Two Alternative Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer

September 28th, 2012 By Emory Cancer Care

When Mike Melton celebrated Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September, this time, he was a survivor.

Melton was just 51 years old when he heard the words that every man fears: “You have prostate cancer.” As he researched his options for treatment, he was unsatisfied. The most common prostate cancer treatments often were described as invasive, uncomfortable and prone to side effects. But with three children, a wife and a bustling business to run, Melton couldn’t afford to wait.

“As I was doing my research, I noticed that so many men reported having side effects that no man would want, much less someone as young as I am,” says Melton. “Then I came across laser ablation during my online research, and it sounded exactly like what I was looking for because it was less invasive and has few side effects.”

Emory radiologist Sherif Nour, MD, FRCR, is one of a few radiologists nationwide performing a new, more targeted procedure called MRI-guided focal laser ablation to treat prostate cancer. Using a multi-parametric MRI that utilizes four types of sequences to collectively identify the area of the cancerous lesion, Nour can pinpoint the precise location of the tumor to verify that the procedure should take place. Once he locates the tumor, interventional MRI technology is used to selectively target and ablate the tumor while maintaining the integrity of the rest of the prostate gland. According to Nour, when compared to breast cancer in women, this new treatment is equivalent to a “male lumpectomy.”

“The options prostate cancer patients have had in the past are to either have surgery, radiation or whole gland ablation that comes with the risk of undesirable complications or to wait under their doctor’s close observation, which causes considerable stress knowing that they may have untreated cancer,” says Nour, associate professor of radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and director of Emory’s new Interventional MRI Program. “MRI-guided focal laser ablation offers our patients who have had a positive biopsy for prostate cancer a less invasive option with minimal recovery time and fewer side effects.”

Traditionally, patients with suspected prostate cancer often undergo a more invasive form of tumor detection and biopsy that can lead to unpleasant side effects. Patients with confirmed prostate cancer may choose a “watchful waiting” approach, which can lead to anxiety. Traditional forms of treatment, such as prostatectomy or radiation, can in some cases, lead to urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
Melton, who was back on the tennis court less than a month after his procedure was the first patient to undergo MRI-guided laser ablation for prostate cancer at Emory. At his three-month check-up, he was declared cancer-free.

“It’s like having a 400-pound elephant sitting on your chest that all of the sudden gets up,” says Melton. “It’s a huge relief. “

Melton is not the only Emory patient benefiting from alternative treatment options for prostate cancer. In the video below, hear from another one of our patients how he found hope and comfort after meeting Dr. Peter Rossi, an Emory radiation oncologist at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and, now, also practicing at Saint Joseph’s Hospital.

The 5-year survival rate for men with prostate cancer found in its early stages is nearly 100 percent. Use this time to remind the men in your life to talk to their doctors about their risk and family history and the appropriate screenings.For more information on prostate cancer treatment options at Emory, please use the linked resources below.

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Cancer Patient Rescues Dog and Is Rescued in Return

April 26th, 2011 By Emory Cancer Care

Carol Witcher, breast cancer patient & her dog Floyd

Carol Witcher rescued her dog when he was seven months old, but never imagined that he would rescue her in return. Over two years ago, her dog, Floyd Henry displayed some curious behavior that made Carol worry that something may be seriously wrong.

“When he sniffed me, he kind of turned back and really pushed into my right breast, real hard,” Carol recalls. “He started sniffing, sniffing, sniffing.” Carol adds, “He pushed real hard for one shot…Then he looked at me straight in the face, and began to paw my right breast. And I thought, ‘This is not good.’” After four days of continuous sniffing, nudging and pawing from her 8-year-old boxer, Carol made plans to see a doctor at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.

It turned out that Carol did in fact have breast cancer that would require treatment with chemotherapy, surgery and then radiation. According to breast surgical oncologist at Winship, Dr. Sheryl Gabram, “Her type of cancer presented as an indistinct asymmetry in her breast…I absolutely believe the dog saved Miss Witcher’s life.”

Dr. Gabram and Charlene Bayer PhD, a chemist at Georgia Institute of Technology, are no strangers to this type of phenomena. They have been investigating cancer patients’ breath in a pilot study involving 20 volunteers with normal mammograms compared to 20 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. They have found that cancer causes the body to release certain organic compounds and the patterns of these compounds can be detected with mass spectrometry, a device that separates out compounds for analysis. It is possible that dogs can smell these compounds but people cannot. Ultimately, Drs. Gabram and Bayer hope that this simple breath test could lead to a means to alert physicians in the office that a patient may have an underlying breast cancer. And in Carol Witcher’s case, quite possibly it did.

As Gabram notes, in the study that Miss Witcher was involved in prior to her treatment, “Our model predicted more than 75 percent of the time correctly which patients did have breast cancer and which ones did not.” This study will be published in early June in the American Surgeon.

ABC News recently covered Carol’s story and discussed previous situations in which the combination of a person’s breath and a dog’s sense of smell led to accurate cancer diagnoses. According to the ABC News story, “In January, a study published in the British journal Gut said that a specially-trained 8-year-old black Labrador retriever named Marine had detected colorectal cancer 91 percent of the time when sniffing patients’ breath, and 97 percent of the time when sniffing stool.” They add that “Dogs have also reportedly sniffed out skin, bladder, lung and ovarian cancers.”
While they might not be able to pinpoint or vocalize what are wrong, canines have demonstrated that they are able to determine that something is wrong.

We will keep you posted on the latest developments in the breath diagnostic work of the team at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Georgia’s only NCI-designated cancer center, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. In the meantime, you can learn more about Carol’s story by checking out the ABC News video here.

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