Howie Hanson’s Blog, Wednesday, June 11

LIVE WEBCAST TO FOCUS ON CYBERKNIFE TREATMENT
Surgery without a scalpel. It’s possible thanks to a high tech tool that treats tumors at the CyberKnife Center at Miller-Dwan Medical Center. The public will get an opportunity to learn more during a live webcast on Tuesday, June 17, 2008, at 6:30 p.m.

Patients have come from as far away as Canada, Iowa, North Dakota and Michigan to receive this painless, cutting-edge treatment. The CyberKnife Center at Miller-Dwan is one of only two sites in Minnesota that offer this type of stereotactic radiosurgery.

“This is a valuable resource in the region to help deal with difficult cancer problems,” said Duluth Clinic Radiation Oncologist Kenneth Dornfeld, MD, PhD.

The CyberKnife uses extremely precise beams of radiation, combined with data from three-dimensional scans, to target tumors and lesions all over the body. It can effectively treat malignant and benign tumors that were previously thought untreatable by more conventional surgical and radiation methods.

Several members of the CyberKnife team will discuss the benefits of this treatment and answer questions e-mailed from viewers during the live webcast. Along with a medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, and surgeon, a patient will describe his CyberKnife experience firsthand. You can go to www.duluthclinic.org to see a preview and to view the live webcast. Computer users must have high-speed Internet service and be able to play Flash videos on their computers.

During CyberKnife treatment, a robotic arm delivers pinpointed doses of radiation, with many small beams focused on the tumor. Where the beams intersect, the tumor receives a very high dose of radiation. But the surrounding healthy tissues receive very little radiation, or can be avoided altogether. During treatment delivery, patients don’t feel a thing. Minor fatigue is the most common side effect.

The advanced technology allows the robotic arm to compensate for motion that occurs during a patient’s breathing, and it’s used frequently to treat lung cancer, as well as other tumors in the abdomen. CyberKnife is most effective at treating smaller lesions that are limited to a specific area.

“If it’s located next to a sensitive structure, CyberKnife does a very nice job,” said Dr. Dornfeld, part of a team of healthcare providers at the Duluth Clinic, who work together to determine whether a patient is a candidate for CyberKnife and to develop a treatment plan.

Doctors say this collaboration is one important way that the care at the Duluth Clinic Cancer Center stands out.

“We offer comprehensive care to patients with cancer in a multidisciplinary fashion,” said Medical Oncologist Daniel Nikcevich, MD, PhD. “A lot of our patients are very complex. It’s not something that can be sorted out with one physician.”

CyberKnife treatment is often used in conjunction with other treatment options such as surgery and chemotherapy. Or it can be beneficial to patients who are not candidates for traditional surgery. The treatment can also be very effective in providing symptom relief to patients whose tumors are causing problems like pain, bleeding, or obstruction to other body parts.

The CyberKnife treatment will be the seventh live surgical webcast from SMDC Health System in Duluth. During previous webcasts, patients have had the opportunity to watch a weight loss surgery, a percutaneous coronary intervention, a minimally invasive abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, a pediatric osteotomy, minimally invasive colon surgery and knee-replacement surgery.

Archives of those programs are available on www.duluthclinic.org.

SCHOLARSHIP IN HB’S NAME
Buoyed by a generous donation from John and Colleen Economos, the Scott “H.B.” Hanna Baseball Scholarship will provide financial assistance to Bulldog baseball players from northern Minnesota or northwestern Wisconsin. Read more.

GRANDMA’S MARATHON SETS NEW REGISTRATION MARK
A record 9,888 participants are signed up for Grandma’s Marathon, topping last year’s total of 9,747. This is the 14th consecutive year that the Two Harbors to Duluth 26.2-mile race has reached its capacity.

The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, now in its 18th year, also reached a new high with 6,619 runners registered. The first event in the three-race weekend, the 15th annual William A. Irvin 5K, has 1,341 registrants.

In all, 17,849 people are registered to compete (9,636 men, 8,213 women) during Grandma’s Marathon weekend.

GEORGE SAID IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS …
It’s an absolute broken record: a storm system is gathering itself out to our west and preparing to bombard the Northland with torrential rains and possible storms. There will be some light showers or drizzle overnight on Tuesday, but the main even gets going Wednesday afternoon and evening. The chances of heavy rain linger into the day on Thursday, before subsiding to mere showers for Friday and Saturday.

Another feature will be very strong winds rising off the lake during the day on Wednesday. In addition to the thrashing, those winds will also be importing some very chilly air. Highs on Wednesday will struggle to leave the 40’s along the shore, with 50’s farther inland. Thursday highs will gradually bounce back toward the 60 degree mark.

Looking to the weekend, the heavy rains will depart, but some showers will linger on Saturday. Other parts of the country have been seeing toasty conditions, but we’ll be hard-pressed to reach even our average high over the next seven days. — Northland’s NewsCenter Meteorologist George Kessler

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