Cancer Treatment
An unusual treatment with a very long name is helping cancer patients who are experiencing xerostomia, one of the side effects of radiation to the head and neck. This dry mouth condition can damage salivary glands, causing chronic oral dryness and slowed salivation.
To help relieve pain and stabilize spinal fractures, Roswell Park first began offering patients a technique known as vertebral augmentation, specifically kyphoplasty, in 2001. “We were the first clinic in Western New York to offer vertebral augmentation for cancer patients, and our experience makes a difference,” Dr. Alberico notes.
As a Stage IV oral cancer survivor, I am very passionate about spreading awareness. Oral, head and neck cancers are profoundly different than other cancers in that they limit one’s ability to swallow, eat and talk.
It can be difficult to make decisions, especially when you’re faced with a cancer diagnosis. For most cancers, there are many treatment options, depending on the type and extent of the disease, any other health conditions you have and other treatments you have received.
At Roswell Park, he enrolled on a clinical trial evaluating a drug combination that would later become known as “7 and 3,” for the dosing schedule of two drugs — seven days of cytarabine followed by three days of daunorubicin.
With stereotactic body radiotherapy, we can intensify treatment with less overall radiation exposure and fewer treatments. For the patient, this means improved convenience and quality of life and reduced costs, especially beneficial for patients who do not live nearby.
For cancer patients, a needle prick is never just a needle prick. Getting blood drawn can come with fear and anxiety about what the results may show.
On January 29, the Food and Drug Administration approved a lutetium Lu 177 dotatate (Lutathera®), a targeted radiation drug, for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
The incidence of liver cancer is increasing, making primary liver (and bile duct) cancer the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Experts attribute this to the high prevalence of fatty liver disease, a condition associated with insulin resistance, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.