In the News

Email Print

Dawn M. Fearn, MA, RT(R)(T) (QM), CMD (Photo courtesy of ASRT)

Physicist Carl Hellmuth Hertz, PhD (left), and physician Inge Edler, MD, pose with their original Siemens reflectoscope in 1977. In honor of the 50th anniversary of echocardiography in medicine, the University of Lund Museum, Sweden, has loaned Siemens Medical Solutions this system for a tour of cardiology meetings throughout the world. This reflectoscope, developed for Siemens by Hertz and Edler in October 1953, was the first ultrasound system used to look at moving cardiac structures in a human. (Photo courtesy of Siemens Medical Solutions)

Fearn Elected to Lead ASRT in 2004-2005

Members of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) recently chose Dawn M. Fearn, MA, RT(R)(T)(QM), CMD, as their president-elect for 2004-2005. She will take office in June.

A member of the ASRT since 1994, Fearn is currently the organization's vice president and previously served as secretary-treasurer.

Fearn is director of the Samaritan Regional Cancer Center in Corvallis, Ore. She also manages the Mario Pastega House, a low-cost housing alternative being built in Corvallis for patients receiving treatment at Good Samaritan Hospital and their family members.

As president-elect, Fearn will serve three years on the ASRT board of directors: one year as president-elect, one year as president and one year as chairperson of the board. Her presidential year will run from June 2004 to June 2005.

Fearn says she plans to focus on workforce recruitment and retention issues during her presidential year. She also hopes to expand the ASRT's role as an advocate for radiologic science issues in the legislative arena.

"It is an honor to be entrusted with leadership of the ASRT," says Fearn. "I promise to continue to advocate for quality care for all our patients and for high professional standards for all who perform medical imaging and radiation therapy."

In other election results, ASRT members chose Catherine L. Parsons, RT(R)(M) (QM), for the office of vice president and Cynthia K. Daniels, MS, RT(R), as secretary-treasurer.

Parsons is administrative director of the medical imaging department at Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tenn. She is currently secretary-treasurer of the ASRT and has been a member of the ASRT Committee on Bylaws, the Mammography Chapter Steering Committee and the Committee on Managers and Administrators.

Daniels is education coordinator at Jewish Hospital College of Nursing and Allied Health in St. Louis. She has been a member of the ASRT Committee on Chapters and Task Force on Governance Restructuring. She also served in the ASRT House of Delegates as an affiliate delegate from Missouri.

Parsons and Daniels will begin their one-year terms of office at the ASRT annual conference this June in Las Vegas, where current ASRT President Donna Newman, BA, RT(R)(CNMT), will turn over the reins to Eileen Maloney, MEd, RT(R)(M), FASRT.

For more information, call 800-444-2778 or visit www.asrt.org.

— American Society of Radiologic Technologists

C-Choline PET Alternative to Pelvic Lymphadenectomy

Detecting pelvic lymph node metastases is vital for prostate cancer patients because the five-year survival rate for these men decreases from 85 percent to 50 percent when the cancer spreads to the pelvic lymph nodes. Of the existing methods to stage pelvic lymph node tumors, the most accurate is pelvic lymphadenectomy, an invasive procedure that has a morbidity rate of 5 percent to 7 percent.

Dutch physicians sought a pelvic lymph node staging technique that was less likely to involve complications (compared to lymphadenectomy), while providing greater accuracy than other imaging procedures. Their research, published in a recent issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, probed the effectiveness of 11C-Choline positron emission tomography (PET) scans in detecting and staging these tumors.

Of the 67 prostate cancer patients who participated in the study, 15 had histologically proven pelvic lymph node tumors. Other imaging techniques, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can identify tumors that change the size or shape of the lymph nodes; however, tumors do not always have this effect. As a result, CT and MRI scans only detected the spread of the disease in 7 of 15 cases. 11C-Choline PET scans, by contrast, presented true positive results for 12 of the 15 cases.

As revealed in the research, 11C-Choline PET scans were not only more sensitive in detecting pelvic lymph node tumors but also effective in determining their development stage; the overall accuracy of 11C-Choline PET scans in this study was 93 percent. This technique shows promise as a safe, non-invasive lymph node tumor staging method for prostate cancer patients.

For more information, call 703-708-9000 or visit www.snm.org.

— Society of Nuclear Medicine

Mastectomy vs. Lumpectomy

Women with breast cancer are less likely to conserve their breasts if there is no radiation therapy facility located nearby, according to the April issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics.

Multiple trials have demonstrated that lumpectomy plus radiation, also known as breast conserving therapy, provides overall survival rates equivalent to mastectomy in the treatment of breast cancer. Breast conserving therapy provides excellent cosmetic results and better preservation of a patient's body image, and, therefore, it is the National Cancer Institute's recommended standard of care for patients who are candidates for the procedure.

Given the excellent cosmetic and survival outcomes achieved with breast conserving therapy, one would expect it to be used more frequently than mastectomy. However, breast conserving therapy is used less frequently than mastectomy. To examine the causes for this trend, researchers assessed the influence of having an on-site radiation therapy facility at a community hospital in Durham, N.C. Before 1996, patients had to travel to Duke University Medical Center. In 1996, a center was opened at the community hospital.

Researchers compared rates of breast conserving therapy before and after the opening of the radiation therapy facility. A total of 586 patients were evaluated. The rate of breast conserving therapy at the community hospital rose from 29 percent prior to the opening of the on-site facility to 44 percent thereafter. Researchers found that rates of breast conserving therapy increased at the community hospital even though radiation therapy had previously been available just five miles away.

For more information, call 800-962-7876 or visit www.astro.org.

— American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Lung Cancer

Regular use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, by smokers protects them against the development of lung cancer. Findings in a study published in the April 1 issue of Cancer indicate that people who regularly used NSAIDs at least three times per week were protected against developing all types of lung cancer compared to those who did not use NSAIDs. The protective effect was only observed in people who currently smoke or who used to smoke but not in people who never smoked. Similar protective effects were observed for smokers who used aspirin.

The authors conclude that "because lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, the possibility that commonly used pain medication can reduce the rates should be explored."

Cycloexygenase (COX) is an enzyme that performs the first step in the synthesis of peptidoglycan and comes in two distinct forms, COX-1 and COX-2. COX-2 levels have also been shown to be elevated in a variety of cancers. Therefore, it is of no surprise that clinical trials have begun using selective COX-2 inhibitors, such as Celecoxib or Rofecoxib, to treat cancers. However, whether less expensive, more commercially available over-the-counter NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen, can prevent cancer in healthy individuals remains uncertain.

Researchers investigated whether regular use of NSAIDs or aspirin had any effect on the risk of lung cancer in a healthy person. They compared the use of NSAIDs and aspirin in 1,038 patients with lung cancer with 1,002 healthy control subjects.

The risk of lung cancer was significantly reduced for people who regularly used NSAIDs. That benefit was observed only for people who were current smokers or used to smoke but not for people who never smoked.

The authors note, "It is uncertain why the inverse association was limited to smokers," though the authors hypothesize that "smoking might induce COX-2 expression." Researchers report that previous studies show cigarette tar extracts increase COX activity in rat lung cells and a greater elevation of COX-2 activity in lung cancer tissue of smokers compared to nonsmokers.

For more information, call 201-748-6000 or visit www.wiley.com.

— John Wiley & Sons Inc.