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| July 26, 2010 |
| Atlanta Business Chronicle Features Winship Spinal Cancer Trial |
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The Atlanta Business Chronicle featured a new clinical trial designed to improve the treatment of cancer that has spread to the spinal column. The national clinical trial tests image-guided radiosurgery for the treatment of spine metastases, a common complication of cancer that frequently results in bone pain. The trial, known as RTOG 0631, is sponsored nationally by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, and headed by Dr. Costas Hadjipanayis, chief of neurosurgery service at Emory University Hospital Midtown, and Liza Stapleford, instructor of radiation oncology at Emory University Hospital Midtown, through a joint collaboration between neurosurgery and radiation oncology at Winship. You can read the Atlanta Business Chronicle at this location:
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/07/19/focus4.html
Winship joins a select group of cancer treatment centers in offering this trial, including the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Duke University, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Metastasis is the movement or spread of a cancer to a secondary site within the body. Spine metastases are a common complication of many types of cancer. While similar to other bone metastases, spine metastases have unique and problematic features, one of which is spinal bone pain. An additional problem is that these metastases can present with a soft tissue mass resulting in epidural compression. Therefore, patients with spinal metastases invariably have severe back pain, often with associated neurological problems.
Despite the prevalence of spine metastases, there have been few clinical studies on effectiveness of radiation therapy treatment. Part of the problem has been the difficulty in attacking tumor masses in such close proximity to the spinal cord. In recent years, radiosurgery or stereotactic radiation has emerged as an innovative treatment thanks to improvements in technology and techniques. Emory recently marked its twentieth anniversary of delivering radiosurgery for patients with brain tumors.
“This is an important study that we hope will lead to more effective treatment for spinal metastases with fewer side effects,” says Walter J. Curran, Jr, MD, executive director of Winship and chairman of Radiation Oncology. “The impact on patients’ quality of life is a serious issue, and while previous studies have looked at partial pain relief, we hope the more advanced radiosurgery techniques will provide more effective and lasting pain control.”
For more information on this clinical trial, contact: Doshia James, Clinical Research Coordinator, at 404-778-5162.
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