SAVING LIVES IN CHILE
Dr. Pelayo Besa at the Centro de Cáncer at Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago, Chile, has been attracting patients from all over South America. Most recently, Hugo Victario, a 61-year-old patient with prostate cancer, traveled from his home in Argentina to receive IMRT.

“I did a lot of Internet research,” Victario explains. “My doctor confirmed that IMRT would be the best treatment.” Victario’s search took him from Argentina 1,000 miles across the Andes to Dr. Besa in Chile, who prescribed 39 treatment sessions over the course of two months. “Today I feel great and life is back to normal,” Victario says. “Except now I see life differently. I make more time to appreciate all the small things that come together to make life happy.”

INSPIRING HOPE IN BRAZIL
Since the end of 2004, João Victor Salvajoli, MD, Chief of the Radiation Oncology Department at Hospital AC Camargo (Hospital do Câncer) in São Paulo, Brazil, has treated about 50 patients with IMRT. One of Dr. Salvajoli’s patients, 79-year-old Hector Afonso Mita, says that incurring fewer side effects was a key factor in his decision to opt for IMRT. “When I found out I had prostate cancer, I immediately consulted with three doctors,” Mita says. “I was soon convinced that radiotherapy was the best method and the results have proved this to be true. Now I feel like Lance Armstrong—I have at least 30 years left.”

CONQUERING CANCER IN FRANCE
The Centre Georges-Francois Leclerc in Dijon, France, is one of 20 cancer centers participating in the French government’s initiative to defeat cancer. The center routinely treats about 15 patients each day, mainly focusing on gynecological malignancies. “IMRT is particularly useful because it allows us to deliver much higher doses than in the past,” says Philippe Maingon, professor of radiation oncology and head of the radiation oncology department at the center. In a recent case, a 33-year-old cervical cancer patient was able to receive a particularly high dose of radiation after another tumor appeared in a nearby lymph node. “Without IMRT, that would not have been possible because of the risk of damage to the small bowel area,” Maingon explains. “IMRT enabled us to increase the dose and destroy the tumor.”

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