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Title: Doctors Take Innovative Approach To Brain Cancer View count: 373 Rating: 5.0 (2 ratings) Description: ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) ― Brain cancer is not one of the common cancers, but when someone has it, it's bad. There are few treatments and life expectancy with the disease is relatively short. "This is a disease which is a very bad disease to have," Dr. Edward Arenson told CBS4. In the last 15 years, doctors have had few choices when it comes to treating brain cancer. Arenson says there are one or two treatments that are considered standard and then many oncologists feel they've run out of options. The Brain Tumor Program at Swedish Medical Center is taking a new approach to treating brain cancer patients. "We take all the knowledge and all the things that have shown any benefit whatsoever and consider them all fair-game with each individual patient. And we try to individualize the therapy the best we can until we find the right therapy for our given patient," Arenson explained. It's that individualized treatment that worked for Cynthia Kuntz. Kuntz was faced with a diagnosis of Glioblastoma 10 years ago. "It was really scary," Kuntz told CBS4. Arenson put Kuntz on a treatment experimental in brain cancer treatment. Photo-dynamic therapy is a treatment in which doctors inject you with a chemical that gets absorbed into every cell in the body. It stays days longer in cancer cells and during that window of time, doctors use light to activate the chemical - killing the tumor cells. Arenson also used powerful chemotherapy drugs in Kuntz. "She's suffered side effects that are long lasting, but I think she would tell you it was worth it," Arenson said. Now, 7 years later, Kuntz lives a life full of children and grandchildren. She is a rare success story in the battle against a deadly disease. "Awesome and blessed - that's what I say about my life, every single day," Kuntz said. Source August 2008 Tags: glioblastoma, photo-dynamic, glioma, cancro, cervello, Author: ItalianGBMGroup |
