Change in healthcare can be agonizingly slow. The scientific rigors and huge financial investments needed to bring novel life saving therapies help ensure physicians do no harm. However, in the grinding shift from fee for service to value-based care it is high time to tell it like it is. In far too many cases, cost effective procedures are being passed over because physicians and their employers are making more money doing something else.
We recently ran across this article by Tom Kadala, CEO of Alternative Technology Corporate: “Did Beau Biden’s Battle with Brain Cancer Change the Course of History,” which discusses cancer treatment options including Cesium 131 brachytherapy and its capabilities for brain cancer treatment. Mr. Kadala writes:
Most hospitals will use external applications such as chemotherapy or laser beams to kill any remnant cancer cells after a tumor has been removed. Although effective, these externally-applied treatments also come with formidable side-effects such as loss of hair and extreme debilitation. In addition to these side-effects, the guarantee of a 100% cure has frequently remained elusive at best. Frankly, neither the doctor nor the patient can ever know for sure if every last traces of cancer cells have been completely annihilated.
An alternative approach to external radiation is brachytherapy. Immediately after a tumor has been surgically removed, doctors implant radioactive seeds right along the wall of the cavity. These technologically advanced seeds are custom prepped with dosages of Cesium 131, a radioactive isotope that similar to a biodegradable stitch, virtually disappears after 9 days of emitting more effective killing energy than chemo or beams can. To maximize their impact, these seeds are assembled in what is trademarked as a GammaTile®. …which is no more than a preassembled, mat-like structure that houses the required number of seeds, each spaced accordingly to emit a steady flow of localized radiation.
You might be wondering, as I did, “…why hasn’t anyone written about GammaTile® cancer-curing treatments, if indeed they are so effective?” The pure and unadulterated answer is the cost of the treatment. No, not because it is too expensive, but just the opposite. It is too affordable! A typical brachytherapy GammaTile® treatment runs about 75 to 90% less than chemotherapy treatments and other similar biological therapies.
Big pharma won’t support brachytherapy because they would sell fewer addictive and expensive drugs to insurance companies. Hospitals won’t support it because the number of visits is reduced significantly, and doctors avoid it because insurance companies won’t pay for it. The fact is that a viable cure for cancer using GammaTiles® and brachytherapy has failed to enter the mainstream of cancer treatments largely due to special interests, ironically, none of which seem to involve the better interests of the inflicted patient and their families.
You can read Tom’s complete, compelling piece here.
Isoray is the sole producer of Cesium-131 seeds for brachytherapy. The GammaTile™ device is currently under 510(k) review by FDA, so no claims of safety or effectiveness can be made at this time. Cesium-131 delivers a higher dose of radiation with a shorter half-life (9.7 days, approximately 90% dose delivery in 30 days) compared to other isotopes. Through oncologists nationwide, we help deliver proven, value-based, therapies for many types of cancer patients including prostate, brain, head and neck, gynecologic and lung.
“Over the past several years, we have seen an unfortunate decline in the utilization of brachytherapy for all cancers,” said Dr. Jonathan Feddock, MD, assistant professor of radiation and UK Healthcare in a recent spotlight. “More importantly, the data is pretty clear that survival outcomes are superior when brachytherapy is a component of definitive treatment.”
We would like to commend and thank Mr. Kadala for his direct, yet eloquent, statement of one key reason healthcare costs continue to skyrocket and patients fail to achieve the best possible outcomes: a desire of too many clinicians, insurers and other professionals to put profits ahead of patient outcomes and value.
If you would like to learn more about brachytherapy’s ability to improve outcomes for many types of cancer patients, contact info@isoray.flywheelstaging.com .
