Medical Team Performs Historic Radioactive Seed Implant Procedure

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Tuesday February 16, 3:51 pm Eastern Time

Company Press Release

SOURCE: Cancer Therapy & Research Center

Medical Team Performs Historic Radioactive Seed Implant 
Procedure  

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- A medical team 
comprised of members of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center 
(CTRC) and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San 
Antonio (UTHSCSA) have performed the first ever CT Guided 
brachytherapy treatment administered to a patient using a 
stereotactic arm to deliver the seed implants. The minimally 
invasive procedure involved implanting 19 radioactive seeds into the 
tumor area of a patient with node involved ovarian cancer who had 
previous full course therapy.  

The stereotactic arm, called Pinpoint(TM), is part of a specially 
designed CT oncology Venue(TM) Suite manufactured by
Picker International. It has been used for diagnostic work at other 
locations, but the procedure performed at the CTRC on
Friday, February 12, with the Pinpoint stereotactic arm, was the 
first time the unit was used by radiologists and radiation
oncologists for brachytherapy. According to James Hevezi, PhD, 
CTRC Director of Medical Physics, ``The Pinpoint
technology is designed to improve CT guided brachytherapy and 
give us instantaneous identification as to the best needle path
we want and it performed exactly as we expected. It did provide 
target precision and served as a needle insertion guide,
allowing us to implant radioactive seeds directly into the tumor, 
while at the same time avoiding the surrounding normal tissue.''

Other members of the team included radiation oncologist James 
Marbach, MD, CTRC Medical Staff and professor at UTHSCSA, 
Shailendra Chopra, MD, an interventional radiologist and professor 
at UTHSCSA, and CTRC radiation therapists. The full procedure, 
after the patient was scanned, allowed Drs. Hevezi and Chopra to 
move the stereotactic arm's pointer along the patient's skin while 
watching the computer update the 3D multiplanar reformation 
(MPR) views to visualize the simulated needle path. As Dr. Chopra 
inserted the needle, its advancement was correlated to the CT 
image and viewed on a monitor located just above the procedure 
table. The advancement of the needle was controlled and viewed by 
Dr. Chopra from the time of the insertion to the actual dropping of 
the seeds. ``We made history here today,'' said Dr. Hevezi. 
``Although we have been doing brachytherapy for some time, with 
Pinpoint we have taken the first step in revolutionizing the process 
because now we have a new, innovative way of planning target  
precision procedures to ensure the most successful treatment.''

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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