At 1:15 p.m., every day, Donald Shorkey is greeted by the miracle machine.
At least that’s what Shorkey calls the machine that shoots radiation beams into his prostate on a daily basis as part of his cancer treatment.
`It’s a miracle machine in that I think that the good Lord gave these gentlemen the knowledge to create this thing,` the 71-year-old Troy resident said.
The machine Shorkey speaks so highly of is called Radiarc, and it is designed to cure cancerous cells in only the exact location within a person’s body they exist, avoiding healthy cells in nearby tissues.
Shorkey receives his treatment at Community Care Physicians in Latham, a clinic that owns and operates one of only six Radiarcs in the world.
At face value, the machine’s purpose seems simple, but according to radiation oncologist and director of image-guided radiation therapy at Community Care Physicians Arun Puranik, avoiding radiation in surrounding tissues could prevent damage to other parts of a patient’s body.
Puranik calls this `organ preservation.`
A CAT scan is completed once a patient begins treatment. Every time that patient comes in for treatment, a new scan is taken and digitally compared with the original scan. The technician then matches up the scans to pinpoint the area that needs to be treated. Radiarc then rotates in 360 degrees around the patient’s body, reaching the area that needs to be treated from all angles possibly, but excluding the tissues that do not need to receive radiation.
According to manager of Community Care Physicians Bob Desjardins, the number of angles at which the radiation reaches the patient is one of the most remarkable aspects of the machine, as those typically used only treat from seven angles.
Another thing Radiarc takes into account is the movement of organs that are being treated in the body.
For example, Desjardins said, with a prostate cancer patient, you can tattoo the patient and pelvis, but depending on bowel and bladder activity, the prostate is subject to move on any given day at any given time.
`So in order to actually treat that target, physicians build a volume much greater than that which needs treatment,` Desjardins said. The Radiarc then decreases that volume by decreasing the margins in which radiation is applied, therefore decreasing complications that could ensue if the patient’s rectal or bladder areas ` both within relative proximity to the prostate ` are exposed to radiation.
Radiarc also provides a quicker treatment time, which means there is less of a possibility that the patient will get antsy and move their body on their own.
`The patient has to lie on the table from anywhere to 10 to 20 minutes for the other treatment,` said Puranik. `This will be done in two minutes [with Radiarc].`
Puranik said the outcome of Radiarc treatment should not yield any different results in terms of a quicker cure rate than typical image-guided radiation therapy, but that it is simply more pleasant for the patient.
Shorkey said he does not mind going in for his treatment and that, `it’s not a noisy machine.`
For Shorkey, Radiarc treatment is the only one he has ever known, as he happened to be the first patient to ever receive Radiarc radiation therapy, not only in the clinic, but in all of Upstate New York.
`As far as I’m concerned, this is the best option,` said Shorkey. Shorkey has just finished up his 22nd week of treatment, and has less than two dozen left before, as Puranik assured him, he is 100 percent cancer-free.
To make an appointment for a consultation, call 213-0305.
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