New Cancer Therapy Developed At AGH Gives Patients Hope
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- For Naomi Howard of Allison Park, her journey with breast cancer started with devastating news.
"They found the breast cancer had metastasized to my liver. So, I was stage four upon diagnosis," she says. "When they say it's in your liver, to me that meant I was going to die. At the point where I said, 'I give up,' my husband came to me and said, 'If you won't fight for yourself, will you please fight for me?'"
And she did fight, step by step - with anti-cancer drugs, antibodies, and radiation and surgery on her breast.
But what to do about the tumor that spread to her liver? Her case was presented at tumor board, and the various specialists there came to the conclusion she would be a good candidate for a new therapy called SBRT, or stereotactic body radiation therapy.
SBRT was developed at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, and it continues to be the only local hospital where that therapy is available. Howard was one of the first people in the country to have the treatment.
"Think of this tumor in your liver as a cockroach. And when you stomp on a cockroach, you think it's dead, but then it starts wiggling. So what do you do?" said Howard. "You stomp, stomp, stomp it. She said, 'I think the SBRT will help you stomp, stomp, stomp this in the liver.'"
Four months worth of radiation therapy is delivered in just five days. The highly-targeted, higher doses requires the patient to lie very still on the treatment table. To keep patients very still, they have to wear a special mold of their body.
"The high doses of radiation has to be delivered precisely, and we have to avoid all surrounding normal tissue," says Dr. Alexander Kirichenko, a radiation oncologist with Allegheny Health Network.
It's well suited for people with small, single tumors that have not spread beyond the organ in which they're situated.
Also, the tumor can't be too close to other organs that are sensitive to radiation, for example the stomach or intestines.
This treatment is covered by insurance. If SBRT is not a good choice, surgery or other types of radiation might be options.
Naomi was selected for SBRT because the location of her tumor was not easily reached by surgery.
It has now been seven years since her initial diagnosis.
"I never expected to be alive seven years later," she says. "I'm doing wonderfully. I'm doing really well. I had routine scans in January, and they're showing no evidence of disease right now."
She and her husband continue their life adventures together.
"We're planning to travel to our 49th and 50th states, and we will have been to all 50 states," she says. "This life I've had, which I didn't think I'd have right now, is just a gift."
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