Aug 29 2012
Anova
Cancer Care has been chosen to participate in a landmark national
prostate cancer study. The goal of the two-year study is to determine
the best treatments for prostate cancer. The study will look
specifically at prostate cancer radiosurgery (CyberKnife®).
Anova Cancer Care is currently enrolling eligible patients in the study.
Gregg Dickerson, M.D., F.A.C.R., Anova Cancer Care Medical Director and
chief radiosurgeon for the study being conducted at his center, said
CyberKnife technology was not included in an earlier study comparing
several types of prostate cancer treatment. When investigators
discovered the positive results reported for the CyberKnife procedure,
they determined it had to be included in the comparison.
"For the CyberKnife research study, the researchers have chosen three of
the top centers in the U.S. that perform prostate cancer radiosurgery,
and it is a privilege and an honor for Anova Cancer Care to be
selected," said Dickerson. "This study gives men with prostate cancer in
the Western United States the opportunity to be involved in historic and
highly significant research."
The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill was awarded a $3.4
million grant to conduct comparative effectiveness research in prostate
cancer by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the
federal agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency
and effectiveness of health care. Recognizing the importance of
including radiosurgery as a treatment for comparison, UNC researchers
have received additional funding from Accuray®, Inc. to recruit
additional patients treated specifically by this treatment.
The study is looking for men age 35 to 80 who have been newly diagnosed
with low risk or intermediate risk prostate cancer. For more information
on participating, patients can call Anova Cancer Care at 303-396-1411.
Telephone consent and phone surveys will be conducted by UNC's Carolina
Survey Research Laboratory.
Since 2001, CyberKnife clinics nationwide have successfully treated more
than 100,000 patients, and Anova Cancer Care was among the first to
start treating prostate patients in Colorado. Dickerson recently
assisted in the effort to educate Medicare to gain recognition of
CyberKnife as a covered treatment option for prostate cancer in the
four-state region that includes Colorado.