Cancer Treatment

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients. Before 2007, the large, multi-office practice was prescribing the treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, for 12 percent of its prostate-cancer patients covered by Medicare, according to data compiled by a Georgetown University researcher. But starting in mid-2007, Chesapeake Urology's referral rate for IMRT more than tripled, rising to 43 percent of the Medicare cases.

Never have I read a more poignant and thought provoking opinion piece than Ron Smith's last column for The Sun ("My work here is done," Nov. 18). It seems cut and dried that realism is the proper philosophy when someone elects not to continue cancer treatment. But what about this idea called hope, the desire accompanied by expectation? Some oncologist or someone else might eventually come to say: "Hey, your tests have shown you are getting better. We've got a new promising drug that works wonders.

Many cancer patients end treatment underweight. Post-treatment breast cancer patients, however, often end up overweight. This can sometimes be attributed to medications such as steroids or chemotherapy. Or the patient is overweight to begin with. Losing this weight is a worthy goal as overweight and obese patients have an increased risk for cancer recurrence, studies say, as well as chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Find your Body Mass Index, a measure of your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared.

After months of chemotherapy and radiation, Susan Faber had finally finished breast cancer treatment and conquered the disease. It should have been a happy occasion. But Faber felt at a loss earlier this year as she rang the gong at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a ritual all patients who finish cancer treatment at the facility take part in. Suddenly a rush of emotions exploded from inside. Faber, 48, had been so preoccupied with treatment for her stage three cancer that she never really had a moment to truly think about the experience.

Acupuncture, the traditional Chinese medicine that uses needles for treatment, is increasingly being used with cancer patients. Dr. Ting Bao, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and faculty at Maryland's Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and Center for Integrative Medicine, regularly used acupuncture to alleviate pain and treat side effects. Question : How common is it for cancer patients to seek relief using acupuncture? Answer : It is difficult for me to come up with a percentage because there have not been many studies performed to answer this question yet. What I can say is that based on my experience at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, more and more cancer patients are interested in integrating acupuncture into their cancer treatment.

The message sounded desperate. "I need to raise $1,900 before the end of the night," it said. "My medical bills and everything has totally put us in the poor house. … I want to live and I want to stop losing stuff just because of this cancer. " The Facebook plea was from Dina Perouty Leone, who at the time, in June 2009, "was asking everyone and their brother for money," according to the message's recipient, Maurica Marcum, a former classmate of Leone's at Sparrows Point High School.

The University of Maryland's growing BioPark in West Baltimore will get a $200 million boost from plans announced Wednesday by the School of Medicine to team with private partners on a state-of-the-art proton cancer treatment center. Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown said the center would create 325 construction jobs, 110 permanent jobs and attract 2,000 patients a year. "It will also continue the state's and Baltimore City's investment in the communities of West Baltimore," he said.

Even as a proposal to legalize medical marijuana emerges in Maryland, a backlash over the burgeoning industry has developed in other states - and is likely to influence legislation here. Last week, the Los Angeles City Council tried to rein in the growth of marijuana dispensaries, limiting the number to 70 and imposing tight restrictions on where and how they can operate. And in Colorado, towns are trying to shutter some of the hundreds of dispensaries that have popped up. But supporters of the Maryland proposal say they have learned from problems in states that approved use of the drug without uniform regulations on the dispensaries providing it. The result, they say: Maryland's measure could be among the most stringent in the nation.

Orioles Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson was released from the hospital Friday after abdominal surgery Dec. 28. "The surgery was successful, and I anticipate a full recovery," Robinson, 72, said in a statement issued by spokeswoman Diane Hock. "I have assured my wife, Connie, and my doctors that I will take it easy over the next few months. I thank you for the outpouring of prayers, compassion and concern." Hock said Robinson, who returned to his Baltimore home, considered the surgery routine, and that it was not related to the cancer he battled earlier in the year.

As Darby Steadman steps out of her champagne Volvo station wagon, the valet parking attendants at the Johns Hopkins garage warmly welcome one of their regulars. She'll make the 30-minute trip from her Severna Park home every day this week and more than a dozen times this month. In Baltimore, she will endure a half-dozen blood draws, a dose of chemotherapy, a dose of another intravenous drug, 12 shots of an experimental breast cancer vaccine, two skin biopsies, and three other vinegar-like injections that are so excruciating that patients say numbing cream does nothing.