Spinal Cancer Patient Finds New Hope with Advanced Varian Technology
By the end of 1994, Karen Fry believed that she had fought and won her battle against breast cancer. Over the next 14 years, she maintained an active lifestyle and enjoyed generally good health. But in October 2008, a chronic pain in her back began to intensify and spread down her legs so that eventually it became too difficult to walk. Tests revealed that as a remnant of her breast cancer, several metastatic tumors had appeared at the lower region of her spinal cord. Karen was treated with 14 sessions of conventional radiotherapy, but six months later, in April 2009, her back pains returned; the therapy hadn't completely worked.
"I felt very low at that point," said Karen, 60, administrative manager for the Chemistry Department at UC Santa Cruz in California. "I wasn't a candidate for chemo or surgery, and the radiotherapy I'd just received had only treated a part of one of the tumors. I needed something else to finish the job."
Karen's tumor had grown within a few millimeters of her spinal cord, bowel, and other sensitive tissues and organs, which could not be exposed again to radiation. Running out of options, Karen's doctors referred her to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) in Palo Alto California.
Clinicians there had begun treating patients with the Novalis Tx platform from Varian Medical Systems and BrainLAB, which can be used to deliver powerful, highly-accurate radiosurgery treatments, a more focused form of radiotherapy that involves delivering high doses over just a small number of treatment sessions. The Novalis Tx platform, as Karen learned, has sophisticated image-guidance tools that allow doctors to determine the exact location of a patient's tumor, ensuring delivery of the most accurate treatment possible. Radiosurgery is a non-invasive form of therapy, which meant for Karen that her physicians would not be making any sort of cut or incision to treat her.
"Honestly, going to PAMF felt like my last shot at being treated," Karen said. "But as they were describing what Novalis Tx can do, the clinicians at PAMF projected a positive, can-do attitude that really helped to restore my hopes for a positive outcome."
Karen's treatment was completed over a five-day period, in daily sessions that took about 20 minutes to complete, during which time she'd be listening, by request, to some of her favorite Roy Orbison tunes. "I felt well enough to continue working through the first four sessions," she said. "On the last day of treatment, which fell on a Saturday, I left the center and was able to go on with my usual weekend activities."
"I feel as though my doctors, using Novalis Tx, have managed to care for me at a higher level," added Karen. "It's only been a short time since I finished my treatments, but so far I feel great."
