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Jim Palomar
CyberKnife Radiosurgery Helps Treat Difficult Tumor
Jim Palomar had a vicious headache that began in 1997 and continued for six years. Caused by plasmacytoma, a cancer of bone marrow plasma cells, a growth had formed on the top vertebrae of Palomar's spine where it connects to the skull. The vertebrae had been honeycombed and slightly crushed.
"I was living with a broken bone that wouldn't heal," Palomar recalled.
He finally found relief in March 2003 after a five-hour session of Cyberknife radiosurgery, a technology that is giving new hope to patients whose tumors don't respond to other treatments.
"After the first treatment, the pain was gone," said Palomar, 41, who had another four Cyberknife treatments. He has since returned to his job as an engineering manager at ChevronTexaco after a two-year sick leave. He is able to interact again with his wife and two children, practices his hobby of competitive pistol marksmanship and is enjoying a generally normal life.
The Cyberknife is the latest generation of stereotactic radiosurgery technology that pinpoints high doses of radiation from hundreds of directions to a tumor without harming the surrounding tissue. By using a flexible robotic arm to deliver highly focused beams of radiation, the Cyberknife treats areas of the body, such as the spine and spinal cord, that cannot be treated by other radiosurgery techniques.
UCSF Medical Center has added a special camera to its Cyberknife that helps target therapy to chest organs, even as the patient's lungs and other organs move. Currently, UCSF is the only center in the country that has an entire fleet of radiosurgery technology and the new camera.
Palomar received radiation treatment soon after he was diagnosed six years ago near his home in Pleasant Hill before he was referred to UCSF. Since then, he has undergone further conventional radiation treatment and two bone marrow transplants, but each time, the tumor eventually reappeared. This time, the prospect of another bone marrow transplant, with its regimen of chemotherapy and weeks of recuperation in a sterile hospital room, was especially depressing.
So when his UCSF doctors -- neurosurgeon Dr. Philip Weinstein, hematologist Dr. Curt Ries and radiation oncologist Dr. David Larson -- suggested a new radiation treatment, he was willing to give it a try. The idea especially piqued his interested because he designed radiation technology earlier in his career.
"Dr. Larson showed me the machine and I got really excited," he said. But he was even more excited five months after the treatment when a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan -- showed a substantial decrease in the tumor.
Story written in October 2003.
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