wfn.org | New Proton Treatment for Breast Cancer to be Developed at Adventist

["Beckett, John" <BeckettJ@gc.adventist.org>]

Health Facility

ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
April 25, 2000
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New Proton Treatment for Breast Cancer to be Developed at Adventist Health
Facility
Loma Linda, CA, USA .... [ANN]

A new treatment for breast cancer is to be developed using proton therapy at
Loma Linda University and Medical Center, a health and educational facility
owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

For the past ten years, the Loma Linda University and Medical Center Proton
Treatment Center has built a solid reputation for treating prostate cancer
patients with non-invasive proton therapy. More than 3,000 men have
completed proton treatment, and studies show that the overall disease-free
survival rate is 89 percent. Now, Loma Linda University engineers,
physicists, and physicians are turning their attention to the needs of women
with breast cancer.  The planned Proton Treatment Center "scanning" method
will help breast cancer patients.

One out of every nine American women will develop breast cancer sometime
during her life (if she lives to the age of 85). This year, 180,000 women in
the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and 43,500
will die of the disease. It is the most common form of cancer in women and
the second-leading cause of cancer death for women, after lung cancer. If a
cancer is found early, it is more than 90 percent likely to be completely
curable. 

Until now, treatment options have included surgery, standard x-ray therapy,
and chemotherapy.  Within the next two years, these options will increase as
Loma Linda University personnel begin enhancing and modifying the proton
beam therapy system by adding a new technique known as "scanning."  This
new, non-invasive proton option will provide an extra dimension in the
treatment of breast cancer, minus the traditional side effects. 

In about two years, with the modifications taking place at Loma Linda
University and Medical Center's Proton Treatment Center, protons can be
safely placed into the breast and lymphatic vessels and nodes with much more
precision than is now possible with standard x-ray therapy. The superior
distribution of the proton beam allows for its placement in the tumor while
sparing surrounding healthy cells and tissue. [LLU&MC TODAY/ANN Staff]

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Contact Information: 
Communications Department
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600

Phone: 301-680-6300
e-mail: info@gc.adventist.org
web: http://www.adventist.org/