Posted by Jay Rolls on August 17th, 2011 — Posted in General
Today is twelve years since I completed my Prostate cancer treatment at Loma Linda in 1999. The Prostate is fine, the PSA is below 0.1 and it’s been largely a side effects free journey.
The Loma Linda experience for me was outstanding. I’ve never been treated by such caring people and I stay in touch with them to this date.
In my opinion, it is unfortunate that we only reach a small number of people with cancers treatable with Protons, and I’ve have been encouraged by the Mayo Clinic announcement that they will have two Proton centers in operation soon.
The current status of Proton Treatment centers in the United States is:
- MGH: Francis H. Burr Proton Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. The Proton Beam Unit was founded in 1962 and has the largest experience with stereotactic radiosurgery of any center in the United States. It makes use of the quantum wave properties of protons to reduce “doses to surrounding tissue beyond the target to a theoretical minimum of zero.”
- LLUMC: James M. Slater, M.D. Proton Treatment and Research Center at Loma Linda University and Medical Center, California (0ver 20 years as of Oct 2010).
- MPRI: Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute at Indiana, University.
- UFPTI: The University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute.
- MD Anderson: Anderson Cancer Center’s Proton Center Houston, TX.
- PPTCOK: ProCure Proton Therapy Center Oklahoma City, OK.
- UPENN: The Roberts Proton Therapy Center at University of Pennsylvania Health System.
- HUPTI: Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute. VA.
Others in process:
- NIPTRC: Northern University Proton Therapy and Research Center West Chicago (On Hold)
- CDH: CDH Proton Therapy Center, Warrenville, Illinois (Due to open 19 October at 11AM).
- PPTCNJ: ProCure Proton Therapy Center, New Jersey (Groundbreaking Ceremony took place on 7 April 2010). 40 miles from downtown Manhattan.
- PTCTN: ProCure Proton Therapy Center University of Tennessee Medical Center. (Scheduled to open in 2012/13,)
- SFPC: South Florida Proton Center scheduled to open in 2012.
Posted by Jay Rolls on July 13th, 2011 — Posted in Patient Testimonies
Next week (17th) I return to the Houston Cancer Center MDA, to review my status. I will be there until the 2oth and hope to return home with a bunch of Good news!
I do not wish to visit the radiation machine again, and seem to be slowly getting the hang of how to get better.
I can’t thank all of you who checked up on me and know that I’m better because you did. So here’s a picture of the IMRT machine used in Houston for the treatment that lasted just over five weeks (Weekends not used).
In the meantime, I have been in touch with over 30 men regarding their Proton progress and five others who asked me “What happens”? The reports say that the Proton is still being denied by some and while that is going on many men and some women are happily completing their treatment with protons for a variety of cancers.
I have talked to a lot of people while at MDA and I am amazed at the number I see every day while I am there. The program is well managed and when I go back I will see some friends who are being treated for almost every “cancer” imaginable.
My Prostate is fine, doesn’t even talk to me and seems happy with the treatment I received in 1999 at Loma Linda’s Proton Center. PSA stays at 0.1 at each annual physical in November each year.
So here’s the picture of the equipment in Houston, there is about ten minutes of preparation and then the IMRT radiation treatment lasts from 15 to 30 minutes. I had three Chemo treatments that lasted most of all day, three days and have been here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since last May 2011.
Click photo to see full size
Posted by Jay Rolls on May 6th, 2011 — Posted in Proton Facilities
Here is a nice newsletter that came out the end of last year from the University of Florida’s Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville, Florida. It is sent out to all former patients and updates everyone on progress being made at the center and other relevant news. Nice laid out and presented, I think many will find this interesting. Here is the web link (CLICK HERE) were you can find the PDF format file of the newsletter. Enjoy.
Posted by Jim Tuggey on May 5th, 2011 — Posted in Patient Testimonies
The first month is complete consisting of IMRT Radiation five days a week and three treatments with Chemo Therapy (once a week) that compliments the IMRT to bring the “Tongue Cancer” to a stop.
The schedule continues through the month of May and if all goes as forecasted I should be “Rid” of this pest by months’ end.
By the end of the third week of treatment I discovered that I could not keep up with an adequate diet to truly maintain my weight and health. The Radiation/ Chemo combination changed my ability to taste and enjoy food. I discovered you can’t live on “Milkshakes” and a product named “Ensure” that delivers a lot of calories but falls short of your total needs.
Thankfully and right on time, in walks the Representative from the Department of Clinical Nutrition and soon you find out the solution to your health needs. “Isosource,” a high calorie medical food, fills the bill and a “peg tube” (feeding tube) is required so they can “fill ‘er up”! At the MDA cancer center this is routine and I suggest you overcome your stubbornness, get it done and “get on with your life”!
Please realize that this is a “Temporary Solution”, it is not a permanent thing and will go away after you are properly fed.
SO my remaining schedule looks like: IMRT May 6
IMRT May 9, IMRT May 10, IMRT May 11, IMRT May 12, IMRT May 13,
IMRT May 16, IMRT May 17, IMRT May 18, IM RT May 19, IMRT May 20,
IMRT May 23, IMRT May 24, IMRT May 25.
These are the last treatments I will have and hope to have a ride home to the Dallas area arranged immediately upon completion.
1 Comment
Posted by Jim Tuggey on April 23rd, 2011 — Posted in General
One of the benefits of treatment for me at MD Anderson Cancer Center was a complete tour of the Proton Therapy Center.
Chuck Merrifield took me to every part of the center and I had a chance to talk to some of the men undergoing Proton Therapy for Prostate cancer.
These men were enthusiastic and one man was anxious to see Proton expand to other applicable areas. I told him that many other body sites were treated and that protons were certain to expand.
Back to treatment – today marks the completion of three Chemotherapy Cycles out of five planned. (Click HERE to read about my new challenge, unrelated to my prostate cancer from years ago)
The Chemo seems to be the biggest challenge to my system and they are very careful to advise you about Pre and follow-up Dental care due to the IMRT impact.
The Doctors and Nurses and others involved in the process are outstanding. I believe that the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s recognition is well deserved and I am astounded by the mix of people being treated from all over the world.
Dr. Frank heads the Proton Therapy Center and he is preparing to expand the scope of this important cancer treatment. These University of Texas facilities are wonderful and they achieve miracles each day.
I’m personally happy that they are working with experience updated to 2011.
3 Comments
Posted by Jim Tuggey on April 4th, 2011 — Posted in General
From March 22 to March 24 my wife and I were in Houston, Texas and have discussed my Cancer with many Cancer experts at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in a most positive medical environment. The MDA team is amazing and up to date with information to use in 2011.
In the Cancer Center “New Patient” check in, Jan and I met the top surgeon, and a very sharp lady who asked me about all my medical history. The Head Radiology Doctor who examined me very thoroughly, looking at the cancer with a scope. He said that my Squamous cell can be treated with IMRT and Chemo and will take about 6 1/2 weeks.
The next day, I started at 6:30 AM preparing for a CT Scan and completed that with no eating from midnight the night before. Then they set me up for a PET Scan at 10:30 (by now I’m starving), over at Nuclear medicine, this involved putting a solution in my system and waiting for one hour before escorting me to a room where the upper torso and the head and neck were two separate parts of this scan.
The week beginning April 4th was all about setting up the Radiation Treatment Schedule and detailed review of every detail. The staff supporting each Oncology department in the Head & Neck Center is superb and knows how to handle all the myriad of problems they face every day.
So after this week of April 4th, I return on the 11th to begin my schedule to defeat this cancer, and I believe the very impressive staff and doctors that insures that the outcome will be successful.
Another bonus is the chance to talk to many people who are undergoing IMRT treatment right now.
Posted by Jim Tuggey on March 19th, 2011 — Posted in General
Next week I’ll be starting again on a new “Cancer” project that has nothing to do with my prostate. The Prostate is fine, the PSA is below 0.1 and it’s been side effects free.
In my youth, I spent years in the sun demonstrating how I could burn myself red and then get the best tan around. That along with driving my car with no sun protection resulted in a few “Basel” cancer cells on the left side of my face that were removed by one of the best, UT Southwestern’s , Dr. Stan Taylor, Professor, MD and an expert at MOH surgery. Then my Dermatologists discovered a Basel cell on the tip of my right ear and once again Dr. Taylor came to the rescue removing that problem with no visible damage.
Now my 81st Birthday present is a “Squamous” cancer cell on the back of my tongue, so off I go to MD Anderson to have that handled by the experts there. On the way I met a remarkable Doctor William Mendenhall, at Shands Cancer center in Gainesville, Florida. He evaluated my situation and convinced me that Radiation therapy was required for this particular job, although to date I have found no one who wants to do this with Protons.
The distance from my home between Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas will not allow me to go to Shands nor Loma Linda so my treatment will be accomplished nearby at M.D. Anderson, Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. I go for the usual introduction next Tuesday, March 22nd and will keep you up to date on how this goes.
You should know that “Radiation” has been around for over 100 years. I read that scientists Becquerel and Rontgen in the late 1800s used radiation applications. Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize winning work with radioactive elements also helped get the ball rolling at the turn of the century.
Scientists and doctors were generally ignorant of the specific reasons why, but the first radiation oncologists cured, from historical record, the first cancer case in 1898.
So, let’s track this along, with a target of about mid-April for the next report.
Posted by Jim Tuggey on February 4th, 2011 — Posted in Proton Facilities
“Mayo officials announced Thursday that patient and philanthropist Richard O. Jacobson is contributing $100 million that will be used to help establish the clinic’s Proton beam therapy program. The program will include new facilities on Mayo’s Rochester and Phoenix campuses. The $200 million Rochester facility will be named in Jacobson’s honor.
Mayo says proton beam therapy is an advance over traditional radiation therapy for some cancers because it’s more precisely targeted, allowing for higher doses with fewer adverse effects.”
This is exactly the kind of news that the entire Proton community needs. Recognition by the leadership in the great American medical community that Protons are here to stay and will be a great boon to future health of all as more and more of the medical giants recognize the value of the Proton.
I still marvel at the “head in the sand” view of some Urologists and Radiologists who are stuck on surgery and IMRT, Brachytherapy and the like. I assume that this group is having enough success to continue following these procedures while ignoring the proton. Too bad since their “oath” should insure that they know what is available and what it does, so “we” the public can choose the best possible path to a cure for Cancer on our terms, not theirs.
Folks, there are lots of men and women who are not even talking about the Prostate, they are aware that the proton has many applications and is the least destructive in the area of ‘unintended consequences.” Those consequences would be the X-rays going through the body with their unstoppable characteristic, while the Proton continues to utilize the “Bragg Peak” for reduced impact on the person treated.
I already wish that the Proton could be used for all cancers and I feel fortunate that Loma Linda had this therapy available when I needed the Proton for Prostate cancer in 1999.
3 Comments
Posted by Jim Tuggey on January 15th, 2011 — Posted in General
This week a friend of mine called to tell me about his Mother-in-law’s cancer treatment.
This story starts over two years ago when we were all at dinner together in Trophy Club, Texas and John’s wife mentioned that her mother was blind due to a tumor. They told me they were trying to find a treatment that would work.
I asked how her tumor was described, and then told them that she should call Loma Linda since I was sure they treated that type of tumor with “protons”.
Not long thereafter, they landed in California for treatment.
In a relatively short period of time, John told me that his “Mother-in-law” could see and thanked me for the information on Protons.
So with periodic checks by the experts at Loma Linda her eyesight continued to thrive and both John and his wife were very happy with the results.
Until this week when John called me to tell me about the follow-on treatments and said, “The tumor is gone”!
Nothing could make me happier than this Proton cure.
So the success stories continue and this woman is free of any tumor that affects her sight.
Great news for a good friend and I hope more good information for you.
Jim Tuggey
14 January 2011
P.S. I still have NO side effects from my Proton treatment from 11 years and 5 months ago.
Posted by Jim Tuggey on December 27th, 2010 — Posted in General
The day I started this web site I decided to do it for free and only feature my own experience with Protons and the experiences of other Proton Treated Cancer survivors, both men and women.
If you have been treated with protons for any cancer I would welcome your comments.
My wife of 57 years and I are going to New York, weather permitting, this weekend and taking my nine year old granddaughter along as well as her parents who have never been in the city for more than a few minutes.
We will be there New Years Eve and my youngest son will remember getting there after flying from Iran on December 31, 1979 after spending some time with us celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary during the time when Iran was changing.
The bottom line is that Protons have allowed me this victory over disease and already I have seen the birth of the young lady going with us and two more new recently born children.
My thanks goes to Dr. Carl Rossi at Loma Linda and his wonderful Case Manager at the time Sharon. These folks and many others made sure that the Proton did the job and it’s hard to remember that it was over on August 27, 1999.
Lastly, thanks to Mr. Jay Rolls, my wife’s nephew, who provides the business and technical genius that allows me to get the word out there.
I hope you have a great 2011.
Jim Tuggey
P.S. I still have NO side effects from the Proton treatment 11 years 4 months since treatment.
