Newsweek, Letter to the Editor
Managing Editor December 1, 2004
FORTUNE
ATTN: Mr. Norman Pearlstine
Time and Life Building
Rockefeller Center
New York, NY 10020
Dear Sir:
I am surprised at the incomplete research in the article Beating Cancer November 29, 2004.
I was treated over five years ago for Prostate Cancer using “state-of-the-art�? Proton Therapy at Loma Linda University’s Proton Treatment Center, in California www.llu.edu/proton. My case is explained at my web site at www.prostateproton.com and the links. I am not a doctor, just a VERY HAPPY patient.
This wonderful option is not specifically mentioned in Fortune’s piece regarding radiation and is unfortunately grouped on page 104 under the “What you need to know about prostate cancer�?, Radiation. In my opinion and personal experience at Loma Linda, Proton Therapy, (Please note the “R�?) is by far the new Gold standard without the unpleasant side effects mentioned on page 104 of FORTUNE Nov. 29, 2004.
FORTUNE’s information on page 104 assumes that all radiation is alike and is incorrect, for that reason leaving potential patients without information on Proton Therapy, including patients with other cancers!
The article is important and credits Mr. Milken with finding funding needed for critical research. However, it ignores the fact that the “Proton�? with it’s inherent and controllable accuracy (Bragg Peak) has been used at Massachusetts General Hospital in cooperation with Harvard since 1961 and continues now in their new Northeast Proton Therapy Center (NPTC) at the Massachusetts General Hospital cancer.mgh.harvard.edu/cancer_radonc_nptc_home.htm.
Loma Linda began Proton Therapy in 1990 and I’ll bet that Mr. Milken never heard of it! In 1991 a member of the facility engineering team from FERMI Laboratories was the first Prostate Cancer patient to be treated at Loma Linda using Protons. To date, out of over 9,000 patients treated with Protons, over 6,000 have been for Prostate Cancer. The success in minimal side effects is outstanding!
Now the treatment is available at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, in Bloomington, and M.D. Anderson in Houston is about to complete its new Proton Center scheduled to open in 2005. (Dr. Smith in Houston at MD Anderson would be the contact.) Also Dr. Metz at the University of Pennsylvania can provide information on the advantages of the Proton and tell you about their plans for a center. One more, Shands Cancer center in Jacksonville, Florida has a Proton facility under construction and at about 80 to 100 million for each facility the numbers are impressive and should be well know and included in all funding for research.
I HAVE NO SIDE EFFECTS! 5 YEARS, 3 MONTHS post treatment.
Sincerely yours,
Howard J. “Jim�? Tuggey
