Therapy that Shines: Hormone Therapy Gives Cancer Patients Another Treatment Alternative
In the early 1900s, the outlook was grim in general for a patient with prostate cancer, much less one who had failed conventional treatment. But today, alternative therapy is available to patients who have failed traditional treatments: hormone therapy. Now, thanks to all of these new treatments, sufferers can bask in the hope, if not the reality, of a cure.
In 1962, Stanford University's Malcolm Bagshaw showed that high-dose, radioactive gold celluloid radiation could be a treatment of choice for men with early (and even advanced) prostate cancers. University of Iowa's Rubin Flocks followed with large-scale implantation of radioactive gold seeds, a therapy that improved with the guidance of ultrasound. Yet, despite great promise, these treatments are still dimmed by the shadow of too many men dying from malignancies too advanced to be treated, much less cured. Thankfully, since the 1940s hormone therapy has given patients with late
