Post subject: New treatment gives hope to cancer sufferers

The results of an international clinical trial, which included more than 2,000 Australian liver and bowel cancer patients, indicate that a radical new approach to treating the disease has a much higher success rate than conventional therapy.

The experimental treatment works by directly targeting tumours with a dose of internal radiation 40 times higher than conventional radiotherapy.

Now, emboldened by the international success rate, two Australian clinical trials have been launched in Sydney this week, as Jennifer Macey reports

JENNIFER MACEY: Ken Dawson from Queensland was diagnosed with bowel cancer last year. Surgery removed the tumour, but further tests reveal that the cancer had spread to his liver. He was told he had just years to live.

KEN DAWSON: And they knew at the time they did the bowel surgery that there was the possibility of tumours in the liver. And that was confirmed with an ultrasound. That was more or less the diagnosis, that I could have had chemotherapy but they didn’t think it would do any good in the long-term.

JENNIFER MACEY: Ken Dawson travelled to Melbourne for a new treatment called Selective Radiation Therapy, or SIRT, where millions of microscopic radioactive spheres or pellets were directly inserted into the liver.

After three months scans showed that the big tumours in Ken’s liver had shrunk significantly. Further tests this year indicated that Ken had been cured.

KEN DAWSON: Oh, 100 per cent, couldn’t get any better. So at this point in time I’m totally cancer free.

JENNIFER MACEY: So, what was the treatment like?

KEN DAWSON: Oh, it was very non-invasive.

JENNIFER MACEY: And did you feel any side effects?

KEN DAWSON: Oh, slightly fluey, but only a case of a sniffily nose. But I wouldn’t say I was in any discomfort at all.

JENNIFER MACEY: Ken Dawson’s success story is typical of the thousands of cases involved in the international clinical trial led by a team from the University of Pittsburgh in the US.

Dr Peter Gibbs is from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and is heading two new Australian clinical trials that it’s hoped will advance the results of the international study.

Dr Gibbs says up to 250 patients will be involved in the new targeted radiotherapy treatment.

PETER GIBBS: The way it’s given, a little catheter or a tube is placed into one of the arteries in the groin and then the radiologist feeds that little tube up to the liver artery, and once he’s got that in position then from outside, the small dose of radiotherapy is injected through the catheter and goes directly to the liver.

So we’re getting a high dose of radiation targeting directing to the cancers in the liver. And for several reasons most of the dose ends up in the cancer rather than in the normal liver as well.

JENNIFER MACEY: In most cases, liver cancer is terminal, and spread to the liver from cancer initially found in the bowel or pancreas. Over 12,000 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year, and half of those will also develop liver cancer.

Dr Gibbs says this new form of radiotherapy will complement surgery and chemotherapy, because it zeroes in on tumours found in the liver only.

PETER GIBBS: And the large clinical trial that we’re about to start is looking at combining the SIRT treatment, the radiotherapy treatment with our best current chemotherapy, and I think that’s got the most promise. We’re optimistic that within the larger trial we’ll be able to demonstrate how good this treatment is.

JENNIFER MACEY: The potentially revolutionary treatment was developed by an Australian company, but without government subsidy. The same treatment, at $7,500 a pop, does get government support in the US.

Patient and beneficiary Ken Dawson hopes the new national trials will get Canberra onboard.

KEN DAWSON: Well, I was surprised to find that it’s available for subsidy in the United States, and this is an Australian company who exports this treatment throughout the world, but it’s not eligible for medical benefits in Australia. It’s not cheap.

JENNIFER MACEY: But it was worth it?

KEN DAWSON: Oh, definitely, I’d do it all again. I’d recommend it for anybody in my situation. Wouldn’t hesitate.

ELEANOR HALL: And that’s cancer survivor Ken Dawson speaking to Jennifer Macey.

Aaron

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