[ RadSafe ] Facts: breast cancer, "radioactive wires implanted", "localized seeds"

[Franz Schönhofer]

RADSAFErs,

An implant is something which is introduced into the body to stay there and
not to be removed. Examples: in a hip replacement the implant is (hopefully)
never to be removed, as well as a dental implant. Nowhere in this world any
radioactive wire or seeds are implanted into any breast. Hopefully everybody
(everybody!) has understood this fact. In prostate cancer seeds are actually
implanted, though they are after some time excreted. 

Next: The person I called an "expert" has distributed a few articles about
treatment of breast cancer - and thereby given himself the final prove that
he was wrong in every respect - see below.

I called a good old friend who works for the Austrian Ministry of Health and
is in charge of all medical applications of isotopes, accelerators and X-ray
machines in order to make sure whether my understanding was correct. She
told me that nowhere in Austria or all of Europe anything is implanted into
a breast or a treatment method is applied like sticking dozens of needles
(catheters) into the breast of a patient, send her home and let her come
every day to the hospital to be treated with radioactive wire or seeds or
maybe having these needles with low activity in the breast for a prolonged
time. Even in the latter case I can hardly imagine that the patient would
want to visit a baseball game - obviously the "expert" is not of this
opinion. 

What is sometimes used indeed is the use of high doses. 12 to 20 needles are
stuck in a carefully according to the tumor localization determined pattern
into the breast and a relatively highly radioactive iridium source is
transported from an afterloading system into them one by one for a few
seconds. In most cases one treatment is sufficient, in a few cases depending
on the tumor it has to be repeated. After the treatment the needles are
removed and in most cases the patient can go home. If the patient would
really want to visit a baseball game, she would not give the slightest
signal on a radioactivity monitor because of lack of any radioactive
material. Again I hope that this reasoning has been understood, even by the
"expert". 

Finally a very short notice on the highly ridiculous comments and personal
attacks of the "expert" - to which I am used:

I did not hibernate, because it is to hot in Europe now - up to 36degrees
(Celsius, what else). I do not feel obliged to send messages to RADSAFE at
fixed time intervals, probably defined by the "expert". I moreover enjoyed
my vacation in Estonia and Finland and take neither my laptop with me nor do
I buy any Blueberry, Greenberry or Violetberry to receive or send e-mails.
Should I have reacted and posted to the expert opinions on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki? Yes, my postings are delayed - usually a day or so, but Marcel has
since a long time not refused any one. If there is no provocation, there is
no reaction. If somebody posts wrong statements, then it must be allowed to
point to them, even sharply. 

We have a saying in German, "Attack is the best defense", obviously since
long a key to the "experts" behaviour. His personal attacks cannot insult
me.

Best regards to all others

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von Sandy Perle
Gesendet: Dienstag, 21. August 2007 00:58
An: nimmoelsa at netscape.net; radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] Technology to detect radiation 

Hi Elsa,

Could be radioactive wires implanted, could be localized seeds, etc. 

Regards,

Sandy