Q-C man travels to California for cancer treatment

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By Ann McGlynn | Friday, March 9, 2007 1:25 AM CST | () comments

Bob Thomas took a nine-week trip to sunny California.

He took in the sights. He ate wonderfully healthy food. He exercised in a beautiful health club. He spent a lot of time reading. A salesman, he devoted some time to work, hooked up to home via a laptop computer.

And he underwent intensive treatment for prostate cancer.

“I came out of there in the best shape of my life,” said Thomas, a Bettendorf resident who works for Trissel Graham & Toole, an insurance agency, in Davenport. “People call it the ‘radiation vacation.’ ”

“It” is proton radiation treatment at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. The treatment, which utilizes specialized and focused radiation beams to treat localized cancers and other diseases, is a fast-growing option in the war on cancer.

Loma Linda was the first hospital-based center of its kind to open, in 1990. Five such centers are now in operation around the United States, said Len Arzt of The National Association for Proton Therapy. Five are in development, including a $125 million center proposed by Northern Illinois University and set to open in 2011.

Jerry Slater, chairman of the department of radiation medicine at Loma Linda, says proton radiation prompts changes in cancer cells that cause them to die or stop working, without the side effects of more traditional cancer treatments.

“Cancer is a dreaded disease. It can be difficult to treat and is not cured easily,” Slater says on the center’s Web site, www.llu.edu/proton. “Sometimes treatment is so extensive that patients may fear it almost as much as the disease. Protons, because they reduce side effects, reduce this fear for many.”

Thomas went so far as to call his treatment “a wonderful time, aided by the feeling that I was getting great medical care from very good people.”

Proton 101

Proton radiation treatment is an option for a specific set of cancers and disease, according to information from Loma Linda.

The list includes brain and spinal cancer, childhood cancers, macular degeneration, lung cancer, eye cancer and prostate cancer, among others.

Many insurance companies — as well as Medicare — cover the cost of treatment, officials say. But because the treatment is often far from a patient’s home and lasts several weeks, there are extra costs to consider. Travel expenses and housing are two of the biggest.

At Loma Linda, for example, some patients choose to stay in nearby furnished apartments. The apartments range from $900 a month to $2,600 a month.

Thomas and his wife stayed in a small, furnished student housing apartment. “We really enjoyed the lack of stuff,” he said.

In addition to Loma Linda, M.D. Anderson in Houston, Texas, Indiana University, the University of Florida and Massachusetts General Hospital operate proton radiation therapy centers.

“There’s a demand out there,” Arzt said. “There is more demand than there are proton facilities because of the advantages of less morbidity and fewer side effects.”

Thomas “ran across” proton radiation therapy as he traveled the Midwest in search of the best treatment for him. While he scheduled surgery, a radical prostatectomy, he also investigated proton radiation and whether it would be the right treatment for his stage of cancer.

He ultimately decided that proton radiation, and its reported decreased chance for impotence and incontinence, was for him.

After spending nine weeks in California, Thomas is now a member the Brotherhood of the Balloon, or BOB. The group is named after what Thomas said is the only uncomfortable part of the short daily treatments: a small balloon inserted and inflated in the rectum to prevent damage to, and movement of, the prostate.

The leader of BOB happens to be named Bob, too.

His nickname? Proton Bob.

Meet Proton Bob

Bob Marckini calls himself a “recovering engineer.”

As such, he researches things to a fault, the retired executive and prostate cancer survivor from Massachusetts said.

“I study things to death, and I plan and prepare,” he said. “But I also had a slight advantage over most. I had a brother who went through (prostate cancer) surgery before I did. This guy, who was the patriarch of our family, was reduced to a gray, pulpy mass. It frightened me to death.

“I decided that if I was ever diagnosed, I was going to find something better.”

Marckini received his diagnosis in August 2000. It launched him on a mission of reading and interviewing doctors.

“The more I did this, the more confused I became. The doctors kept telling me I was the poster child for their treatment.”

Then he started interviewing the men who went through each of the different types of treatment for prostate cancer, from surgery to cryoblation to brachytherapy to radiation.

It was during his research that Marckini received a telephone call from a friend who lived on a boat off the coast of Grenada. The friend had undergone surgery for prostate cancer a couple of months earlier and was still moving quite slowly. One day, while walking gingerly about, an acquaintance who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer at the same time jogged by him.

The acquaintance had undergone proton radiation treatment.

“It was the answer to my prayers,” Marckini said.

He traveled to California for treatment. A half-dozen men who underwent treatment at the same time talked about forming a group and the Brotherhood of the Balloon was born. It is now nearly 3,000 members-strong.

Marckini is now 63 years old and healthy.

“Not only did I receive the best treatment in the world, I learned a lot about diet, health, maintaining a healthy life. They are Seventh-day Adventists at Loma Linda. Their whole reason for being is to cure and heal mankind. Although I had already lived a pretty healthy lifestyle, I made some changes as a result of that. Today, I am healthier than I have been in my life.”

The “other” Bob, Bob Thomas of Bettendorf, recently traveled to Loma Linda for a checkup. The test results are encouraging.

His advice to others facing a cancer diagnosis?

“Attack. Even if the benefits are somewhat limited or even questionable, change your diet, improve or start an exercise regimen. Give yourself the feeling that you are fighting back, attacking the disease, not just waiting around, hoping the medical treatment will work. Actively participate in the struggle.”

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.

More information

www.proton-therapy.org — The National Association for Proton Therapy

www.protonbob.com — Support group for men who have undergone proton radiation therapy for prostate cancer

www.llu.edu/proton — Loma Linda Medical Center

www.massgeneral.org/cancer/about/providers/radiation/proton/index.asp — Massachusetts General Hospital

www.mdanderson.org/care_centers/radiationonco/ptc — M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

www.mpri.org — Indiana University

www.floridaproton.org — University of Florida

What is proton radiation therapy?

Proton beam radiotherapy uses a special machine called a cyclotron to energize protons. Protons are then extracted from the cyclotron and directed with magnetic fields to a tumor. How deeply the radiation penetrates is calculated and based on the tumor’s location. Protons lose only a small amount of energy when they enter the body. Their remaining energy is released when they reach the tumor, delivering the most effective dose of radiation. Unlike conventional radiation therapy, protons have no exit dose.

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital