Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer, The University of Kansas Health System
- We are exploring very cutting edge cancer research and learning about a new technique that isn't quite ready to be used on patients yet.
- Early clinical trials are just now starting, if it's proven safe and effective, it can transform how patients receive radiation.
- It's called flash radiotherapy or flash RT, and it delivers ultra-high levels of radiation into a very short burst.
- Six weeks of radiation treatment can be delivered in less than one second, resulting in one dose and less tissue damage.
Dr. Ronald Chen, chair, radiation oncology; associate director for health equity, The University of Kansas Cancer Center
- We know that radiation is a great way to cure many types of cancer, but also it can cause side effects.
- Historically, we broke up the radiation dose to small pieces every day and small doses over several weeks to get enough dose to the tumor while minimizing side effects.
- In order to deliver flash radiation, which is a really high dose to the tumor, it requires a machine that has enough power to do that.
- Research has shown regular radiation machines are not able to deliver that kind of dose to a deep tumor very well. It requires a specialized proton machine to be able to have that ability to deliver that kind of dose in such a quick time.
Dr. Gregory Gan, radiation oncologist, The University of Kansas Health System; co-director, Oligometastatic & SBRT Program, The University of Kansas Cancer Center
- There's a lot of work in our department of radiation oncology on this. We have a dedicated research team using computer models to see if we can model these radiation treatment plans better in the future. We're probably one of the world’s leading research groups in this area.
- It takes a village. We have a number of proton trained specialists and clinicians who have this kind of experience. We also have some great proton physicists who have that capability.
- All of us are trying to tackle this problem in a multidisciplinary fashion and this is one of those things that sets our healthcare system apart, because not only are we able to continue with the with the current clinical care that we're doing, but we're trying to innovate that next step.
- Cancer treatment is always changing and getting better and the radiation treatment today is not the same radiation treatment from five years ago.
- One of the great things about being an NCI comprehensive cancer center is that we are pushing the treatment forward to develop something new for patients so we can cure more patients and have less side effects.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System
- The hospital COVID count for this week is down slightly to 21 inpatients.
- Influenza and RSV admissions have continued to stay low.
- There may be some new upcoming guidance from the CDC on isolation times for people infected with COVID to better reflect the latest information on the virus.
- There’s also a new study out that shows how the vaccine is linked to a lower prevalence of long COVID.
Friday, Feb. 23 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Wrongly diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, one patient sought a second opinion at The University of Kansas Cancer Center and it changed the trajectory of her treatment.
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