Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: New Treatment for Brain Radionecrosis Draws Tumor Patients From Across the United States to The University Hospital
Contact: Pat Samson (513) 585-7200
Date: 06/10/04
Cancer patients from across the United States are being drawn to the new Brain Radionecrosis Center at The University Hospital to take part in a study of a potentially life-saving treatment for radiation-induced damage to soft tissues of the brain.
The Center is the only facility in the country participating in the two-year, $450,000 study, which is being funded by the National Cancer Institute, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Brain radionecrosis can be a devastating side effect of radiation therapy for brain tumors. Although most patients with brain radionecrosis can be successfully treated with steroids, those who are not helped by steroids previously have had only one available treatment option: surgery to remove the injured part of the brain. If surgery was not possible, the patient suffered from severe neurological damage, which ultimately resulted in death.
Laurie Gesell, M.D., Director of the Division of Hyperbaric Medicine in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Emergency Medicine, has pioneered a way of treating these patients with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). The treatment involves placing the patient in a pressure chamber, which resembles a tanning bed, and having the patient breathe pure oxygen (100 percent oxygen at greater than one atmosphere of pressure). Each treatment averages 2 to 2 ½ hours and is overseen by certified HB therapists, nurses and clinicians. Treatments are repeated every day for one to three months. Patients generally receive a total of 60 HBOT treatments. They receive 20 treatments over a four-week period, then are assessed by MRI. After the assessment, they receive 40 more treatments over the course of eight weeks. These treatments are now approved by Medicare and Medicaid.
Preliminary results are promising, and in many patients damaged tissues have been healed completely. Nevertheless, although hyperbaric oxygen therapy appears to be working, no one is sure exactly how it heals injured tissues.
With funding from the NIH, Dr. Gesell and her team of researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and The Neuroscience Institute set up the Brain Radionecrosis Center to study not only how well hyperbaric oxygen therapy works, but also the mechanism that enables it to work. If the treatment proves to be as effective as preliminary findings indicate, the team expects to expand its study into a multi-center trial that ultimately could lead to the establishment of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as the main treatment for patients with brain radionecrosis.
"We have been treating patients with brain radionecrosis for over five years, and it appears to be working," Dr. Gesell said. "We think the increased oxygen at pressure promotes the growth of new blood vessels into the injured tissue, helping the healing process. We have designed this study to compare how well hyperbaric oxygen therapy works compared to usual medications, and to find out whether the treatment really is making these new blood vessels grow. If we can show that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is better than medications, and if we can understand how it works, we'll be able to help thousands of patients every year who get radiation therapy for brain tumors."
In addition to being the region's only board-certified hyperbaricist, Dr. Gesell is an emergency medicine physician. Her collaborators in this research are Christopher Lindsell, Ph.D., of the Institute for Health Policy and Health Services Research at UC; Ronald Warnick, M.D., a neurosurgeon with the Mayfield Clinic and The Neuroscience Institute and professor of neurosurgery at UC; and John Breneman, M.D., a neuroradiologist with The Neuroscience Institute and professor of radiation oncology and neurosurgery at UC.
The Neuroscience Institute is a regional center of excellence that embraces nine neuroscience specialties within The University Hospital, the Health Alliance and UC. The Institute is dedicated to patient care, research, education and the development of new medical technologies.
The University Hospital is part of the Health Alliance, an integrated health care delivery system that also includes The Christ Hospital, The St. Luke Hospitals, The Jewish Hospital, The Fort Hamilton Hospital and the physicians of Alliance Primary Care. To view other Health Alliance news releases, go to www.health-alliance.com/pressroom.
|
Call Alliance Medical Transport for all of your medical transport needs.
Mobile Care:
513-585-8911
University Air Care:
513-584-8100 or
1-800-826-8100 |
