Proton Treatment of Cancer

As an Engineer, with a BS from the U. S. Naval Academy and an MSIE from Stanford University, CA,[PHI Redacted], I feel I am well qualified to comment on the mistaken approach CMS wants to take. The rational is solely to avoid paying the cost of Proton treatments instead of using that better treatment regimen that has far better results for the Dollar. The cost rational instead of the patients well being is a cheap shot at cancer sufferers.

I have seen and read most of the comments by "Doctors" who have one main goal, make money from their barbaric methodology of treating Prostate Cancer. Three percent of all their touted methods result in absolutely disastrous side effect to ones quality of life, let alone the likely hood of reoccurrence of the Cancer. One example of the many men going though treatment[PHI Redacted], was a gentleman 45 years old who had a total radical prostectomy. Guess what, his cancer came back. I cannot say it was the result of incompetence on the part of the surgeon, but that procedure has horrible side effect. Nerves are cut, yes accidently, by incompetence, leaving the individual in depends, or worse and his ability to have a continuing love life with his wife is gone for good. Is it worth that chance, no way in hell? That is an antiquated procedure, which should be ethically prohibited.

IMRT, although less likely to sever nerves, photon radiation is a killer in itself. Why, the radiation goes in one side of the body to the cancer. It does not stop there but continues out the other side of the body destroying absolutely good tissue for no good reason other than making money by that procedure.

Cryo, Bronco, Radioactive Seeds and the rest are just as destructive or just an ineffective at the three percent level or even higher.

[PHI Redacted] had 45 78 gray scale proton radiation treatments with absolutely 100@ NO SIDE EFFECTS!!! starting treatment with a Gleason 7 cancer even though the PSA was only 2.0. Can the other old treatments do that? No way. Sorry doctors, slice and dice are not for anyone with a brain. Why is that procedure successful, it is a matter of physics. The beam is constrained to the outline of the prostate in [PHI Redacted] case. A 3-D scan of the prostate is sent to a physics lab to lathe out the material that constrains the distance the protons travel as vies separately from the left and right side of the incoming radiation. As the depth of the cuts is less where the beam is to go the farthest without exiting the opposite side of the prostate, all energy is expending within the prostate destroying the ability of the cancer to recreate itself. Different depths of course a made for the opposite side, thus ensuring again the radiation does not leave the prostate. What a wonderful concept compared to IMRT and then the Seeds, which have been known to travel to a patients lungs.

You cannot control the depth of penetration of photon radiation like one can with protons, that is pure simple physics.

As for studies on results, the initial facility at Loma Linda University Medical Center with any kind of patient handling capability has been doing this since 1990. They have amassed tremendous amounts of data relating to incoming PSA levels versus survival rates as one example. All one has to do is take off their blinders from praising ancient technology and get the data from that university. Two new facilities are up and running although he Florida center stupidly bought a cheap Belgian Cyclotron versus a U. S. Made Synclotron. Why do I say stupid? A Synclotron goes radioactively cold in minutes not days like in the Cyclotron. Repairs are made and the system is usually up and running that same afternoon. Disturbance to patient treatment is minimal. That is particularly compounded when that repair didn''t solve the problem. The Cyclotron again has to wait 2 days before it can be accessed again. At 150 patients a day, financial losses are significant as well as being a detriment to the patients.

Several of my Academy classmates have had prostate cancer and every one, IMRT, Robotic Surgery, etc. all have had horrible quality of life consequences as a direct result of the procedure.

Why any Hippocratic Oath taking doctor would put a patient through such hell for the sake of their making money when there is a magnitude better way of curing that kind of cancer.

One glaring example of incompetent surgery. The 45-year-old [PHI Redacted] has a wife who had a tumor on her optic nerve. The surgeon blew it and severed a facial nerve. Now her left eye looks upward at a 45 deg angle to the right and her pretty face is totally distorted on the left side. Two days before her husband was finished with his treatment, one gentleman came out of his last treatment session for exactly the same problem, tumor on his optic nerve. He was hollering, I can see, I Can see, as he was swing this Bola, the physical device that was put through the lathe to limit depth of the proton penetration. Not only that, his face had a grin from ear to ear. You should have seen the look on that lady''s face, and if she would have known about Protons for treating cancer, she too could have been saying I can see with a smile on her face. Such butchery should be prohibited.

In short, do not ever stop funding Proton Therapy for treating cancer, as not only can it do prostate treatment, but brain, nerve and other such tumors without the damage of a slipping scalpel. A better alternative to Proton therapy, there is none, the only reason for the old methods is the entrenched blinded doctors wanting money for their method without regard to new technology, and what is really the best treatment with no side effect on a patients continuing life.