13 WTHRRadiation blast hopes to end cancer return

Radiation blast hopes to end cancer return

Anne Marie Tiernon/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - Doctors hope a "super blast" of radiation in some cancer patients can eliminate the disease for good.

"I've been fighting it for years," says 82-year-old Dave Ragan of Stendel, which is near Jasper in Southern Indiana.

Ragan is ready to get rid of the head and throat cancer that keeps coming back. To date, he's had 37 radiation treatments.

"He's had the maximum amount of radiation he can get it the traditional sense," said St. Vincent Dr. Tod Huntley.

CENTA doctors at St. Vincent say any more radiation would compromise the tissue on the way to the cancer.

"The skin some of the tissue underneath the skin, the jaw bone, the voice box and that's received it's maximum amount of radiation," Huntley said. "If he would get additional radiation that would put those structures at risk."

But in the operating room, doctors remove the tumor, then retract the tissue and deliver a super dose of radiation.

"We have a machine called a mobetron, which is one of just a few in the world that can deliver radiation in the O. R. while he is still asleep," Huntley said. "He's getting the equal of about seven or eight radiation treatments in one blast in ten minutes today."

The super blast is delivered through a silver tube.

"It is a big deal. All it takes is one grain of sand of cancer left behind after a surgery, sitting dormant, to later show itself with the cancer coming back in full form," Huntley said.

Dr. Steve Freeman is internationally known for cases like Ragan's.

"We have a delegation visiting us today from mainland China that is very interested in purchasing a mobetron and utilizing it for the huge volume of cases at their national cancer hospital," Huntley said.