Tuesday December 12, 2000

Treating Brain Cancer

Time to update a story we did about a cancer doctor who's having miraculous results. His name is Doctor Order and the treatment he's ordering for patients sounds strange, but in some cases, it's having an amazing effect. Dr. Sean has today's RXtra report.

For Elena Ehrlich, it began quietly. Her daughter Patty says, "She just got up one morning and she didn't know how to make coffee."

But, Patty Ehrlich soon found out that her mother had cancer of the brain. She says, "They only gave her about three months to live."

They tried surgery, gamma knife, chemotherapy, and conventional radiation... The brain tumor wouldn't die. Then, a year ago, patty saw an episode of "EXTRA," about an amazing new treatment for cancer of the pancreas. Patty says, "We were like, 'did you hear that? Did you get that?'"

We put Patty's mother in touch with the Center for Molecular Medicine on Long Island, New York, and now this could be Elena's only hope for life.

Here's the secret to this new procedure. Believe it or not, it's... glue! Doctor's Wayne Court and Mitchell Levine first inject "albumin" glue into Elena's brain tumor. Dr. Levine explains, "The albumin acts as a glue which secures the isotope in place so it doesn't diffuse throughout the body."

Next, Dr. Levine injects into Elena's brain a massive dose of radiation, one hundred times greater than ordinary treatment. The glue around the tumor stops the radiation from leaking into the rest of the body.

The procedure takes maybe an hour. Within a week, Elena is walking around, while the radiation destroys her tumor. Dr. Court says, "That liquid radiation should be killing that tumor from the inside out, up to almost the next three months."

We won't know if the results of this experiment are successful until February. But doctor Levine is optimistic. He says, "We have seen some tumors get smaller."

And Patty Ehrlich can now see being with her mother, for years yet to come. She says, "It's been a nightmare. Now, I have some hope."