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Alternative prostate cancer treatment announcement and, unrelated, Cabot letter "sell" recommendation are probably responsible. The Cabot letter cites lack of momentum as the reason for selling. The former may be found here:
biz.yahoo.com
notable excerpt from the above link --
>>> 3-D techniques at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. ''High dose 3-D conformal radiation therapy has been shown to reduce the relapse rate for prostate cancer as measured by PSA (prostate specific) antigen) levels,'' says Steve Leibel, M.D., Chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology at MSKCC.
''IMRT, an advanced form of this conformal approach, will permit the safe delivery of even higher dose levels by sculpting the volume of high radiation dose around the surrounding normal tissues. More than 300 patients with prostate cancer have now been treated with this technique at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. We are able to increase tumor doses beyond those feasible with conventional 3-D conformal therapy approaches, with a decrease in the risk of normal tissue complications. While precision is always important, this is particularly critical in our prostate treatments, where we are able to locally control the tumor while avoiding damage to the bowel and rectum,'' says Dr. Leibel. <<<<
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I highlighted in bold what I believe is the key benefit of IMRT -- being able to more precisely control dosage to the tumor. I don't see this as a major threat to THRX for the following reasons:
1. 3-D radiation is itself not new, it is only now more precisely controllable. Its competitive posture as a method of treating prostate cancer is enhanced somewhat compared to THRX's seeds.
2. I surmise that the same level of control was available (before IMRT), but it required more treatments. That is, lower radiation doses would be delivered over several visits, whereas IMRT allows a single more powerful dose to do the same job.
I don't see this as significantly impacting THRX's seed business. Mind you this opinion is from a retired engineer and not a medical specialist.
Tulvio
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