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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout!
LGND 197.85+3.0%Feb 2 3:59 PM EST
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To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (29704)12/21/1999 11:19:00 AM
From: Gregory Rasp  Read Replies (1) of 32384
 
Cheryl

To answer your questions about radiation for early CTCL:

The treatment can either be Total Skin Electron Beam (TSEB)therapy or focal radiation (XRT). The former treats all body surfaces. It is toxic and cumbersome. The patient must come 4-5 days a week to a radiation center for 7-9 weeks (30 min per day). They wear internal lead eyeshields (bulky opaque contact lenses) during the treatment. Toxicity is high. There is the loss of all hair and nails (temporary) as well as the inability to sweat. This difficult therapy is used because it can often put a patient into remission for several years. This can usually be done only once in a lifetime per patient though I have seen it done twice on a few occasions when I was a resident.

The malignant cell in CTCL is exquisitely sensitive to radiation so radiation sensitizers (like taxol) are not needed for this disease. Taxol is a much more promising radiosensitizer in lung cancer and head and neck cancers. It may also have application in GI tumors like stomach. And of course it is highly effective without radiation in the treatment of these diseases as well as breast and ovarian cancers.

XRT is more localized and treats lesions in a palliative fashion one at a time. Treatment is usually 5 days per week for 4 weeks. This is very well tolerated therapy and has a very high response rate. This can be done many times to various parts of the body. Side effects include some reddening of the skin and hair loss at the target site only.

Merry Christmas!

GR
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