Treatment Options
Treatment depends on the type and stage of a patient's cancer. Options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of these treatments.
Surgery
Stamford Hospital is known for expertise in minimally invasive surgical techniques for the treatment of lung cancer. This includes utilizing the da Vinci Surgical Platform, which enables surgeons to perform even the most complex and delicate procedures through very small incisions and with unmatched precision. For our patients, the potential benefits of minimally invasive procedures include less pain, less blood loss and less need for blood transfusions. Moreover, it can result in a shorter hospital stay, a quicker recovery and faster return to normal daily activities.
Chemotherapy
Progress has been made in the use of chemotherapy for cancer patients. Systemic chemotherapy is often given to advanced disease patients, and is being used more frequently as post-operative adjuvant therapy.
In some instances, radiation therapy is employed simultaneously with chemotherapy, or in sequence with it. The newer targeted therapies, given either with chemotherapy or as single agents, have added to the overall effectiveness of cancer treatment.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is often an important component of cancer treatment. It can serve as an alternative to surgery, be used in conjunction with chemotherapy, and can also be effective in relieving specific symptoms. Particular to prostate cancer, advances in radiation therapy include:
Brachytherapy: This treatment technique implants small radioactive pellets or "seeds" (each about the size of a grain of rice) into the prostate. Because they are so small, they cause little discomfort and are left in place after their radioactive material is used.
Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT): Commonly used to treat cancers of the prostate (among others), this technology makes it possible to vary the intensity of the beam as the patient is being treated, allowing for safer use of higher doses of radiation to the tumor and lower doses to surrounding healthy tissue.
Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT):This type of therapy allows therapists to track the tumor volume for every treatment, ensuring an even more precise delivery of radiation.
CyberKnife® Radiosurgery:This sophisticated robotic radiosurgery system, appropriate for selected patients, uses real-time imagery and computer-guided robotics to track and correct for patient or tumor movement. Ours is the first CyberKnife Center in the region.
Provenge®
The immune system is our body’s defense against all types of illness, such as cancer. However, cancer cells can also hide from a person’s immune
system. Provenge®, a relatively new treatment available at Stamford Hospital, is designed to stimulate immune cells against prostate cancer cells, ultimately helping a patient’s immune system fight prostate cancer. This treatment is most widely used for patients who have advanced prostate cancer, but are still relatively healthy.
According to oncologist Dr. Neil Cohen, of Hematology Oncology, P.C., “Provenge is a significant advance in the treatment of prostate cancer. It is neither hormonal therapy nor chemotherapy and therefore avoids the side effects usually associated with those treatments. Instead, it uses the patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer and extends patient survival as a result.”
There are several new drugs designed to specifically treat prostate cancer and Stamford Hospital is proud to offer three of the most recent ones to hit the market. In addition to Provenge, another is Zytiga, for which the Hospital was part of the clinical trial. Used for a number of our patients, Zytiga’s success led it to being more widely available today.
Patients can ask their oncologist for further information about Provenge treatment or any other clinical trials currently available at the Bennett Cancer Center.
For more information or to make an appointment please call
1-877-233-WELL (9355).