Search Results for "proton beam"
Proton beam therapy claims refuted by urologists on Twitter
On this website, we’ve tracked how proton beam therapy for cancer radiation treatment has been promoted, including in marketing efforts by medical centers that have made an expensive investment in the technology. Something posted on the website of the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute sparked a mini-furor this week with a couple of urologists who […]
9/23/2014Proton beam: should a news organization “partner” with providers to promote in the face of intense debate?
On the same day that the Mayo Clinic co-hosted a Twitter chat about “The Role of Proton Beam Therapy in Cancer Care”….. ……Kaiser Health News published a story, “Insurers Hesitant To Cover Many Proton Beam Therapy Treatments.” Included in that story was the news that: “some insurers and disease experts say that, until there’s better […]
9/4/2014Family’s pursuit of proton beam therapy is focus of international controversy
Proton beam therapy – which I’ve written about many times – is in the headlines for new reasons, including: a little boy with brain cancer charges of denial of treatment “an international manhunt” extradition hearing a statement by the British Prime Minister A Google search comes up with more than 2,000 returns on the story. […]
6/12/2014Proton beam therapy – radiation oncology group weighs in on the evidence (and lack thereof)
Usually when I make suggestions to journalists about things to cover, I urge them to report on questions of evidence for two of the fastest growing and most expensive medical technologies: proton beam radiation therapy and robotic surgery. Recently, the American Society for Radiation Oncology issued a new model policy for proton beam therapy. In […]
4 9/6/2013Insurers doing what feds haven’t in refusing to pay for proton beam therapy
The Los Angeles Times reports, “Blue Shield of California to curb coverage of pricey cancer therapy.” “As hospitals race to offer the latest in high-tech care, a major California health insurer is pushing back and refusing to pay for some of the more expensive and controversial cancer treatments. Blue Shield of California is taking on […]
4 6/1/2013“Here they go again” – 3 new proton beam facilities w/in 40 miles in DC-Baltimore
“When it comes to reining in health care spending, it still seems like each hospital administrator thinks the guy at the other hospital should do it.” That was the lead, as Jenny Gold of Kaiser Health News reports that two Washington,DC hospitals – three miles apart – are building expensive proton beam radiation centers for […]
4/9/2013Urology journal publishes papers with questions about robots and proton beam therapy
Probably the two most frequent subjects on this blog regarding the proliferation of new medical technologies are proton beam radiation therapy and robotic surgery. Since this blog focuses on media messages about health care interventions, we generally focus on the marketing claims made for these technologies. The latest edition of the journal Current Urology Reports […]
12/20/2012Oregon: Just saying “No” to expensive proton beam therapy (for now, at least)
The Oregonian reports something you don’t hear very often these days – a medical center saying “NO” – at least for now – to the medical arms race. And by dropping their plans to acquire a proton beam therapy facility, they said “NO” in a big way. The Oregonian reports: In recent years, large medical […]
6 11/5/2012Proton Beam Therapy: evaluating claims in ASTRO papers of “excellent” quality of life data
Last week, the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s annual conference was held in Boston, and several papers were presented on proton beam therapy, and several medical centers sent out news releases about their involvement in the work. MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Loma Linda University Medical Center in California were two that we […]
12 11/2/2012Pumping up proton beam therapy in the WSJ’s “Parable of Health-care Rationing”
A physician who is a frequent reader of this blog – and of other media – wrote the following note to me: “This one from WSJ just left me speechless. And I mean speechless. Wow. Can you clip the ACA, device tax, Medicare cuts, AHRQ, IPAB and pump up proton beam therapy in one shot–the […]
6/19/2012US health care: “haven for many, but sick Americans often jilted” – proton beam therapy a case in point
The National Association for Proton Therapy states that there are currently 10 proton beam radiation facilities operating in the US, with 5 more under construction and 2 “in development.” Currently, the UK has none, but the National Health Service has announced plans to build centers in Manchester and London. Until then, the NHS says it […]
4/17/2012In the BMJ: “Is spending on proton beam therapy for cancer going too far, too fast?”
In a feature in the BMJ this week, journalist Keith Epstein asks, “Is spending on proton beam therapy for cancer going too far, too fast?” Excerpts: “…the spread of proton beam therapy for cancer has such momentum it now seems unstoppable. Millions of dollars have been invested in building the particle accelerators necessary to deliver […]
4 4/17/2012JAMA paper on IMRT vs. proton beam for localized prostate cancer
We’ve written numerous times on this site about the costly proliferation of newer forms of radiation therapy – intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and proton beam therapy. A paper in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association compares the two for localized prostate cancer. The authors’ conclusion: Among patients with nonmetastatic prostate cancer, use of […]
3/26/2012Bloomberg story: “Proton beam therapy like the death star of American medical technology”
Bloomberg reports,”Prostate Cancer Therapy Too Good to Be True Explodes Health Cost.” It was Harvard health economist Amitabh Chandra who used the “death star” analogy in the story. He also said, “It’s a metaphor for all the problems we have in American medicine.” Further excerpts: Yet even though the machines are breathtakingly expensive, hospitals and […]
2/14/2012Proton beam therapy: if you build it, they will come
A “research letter” in the Archives of Internal Medicine this week concludes: “To our knowledge, we show for the first time that the availability of a technology, in this instance a proton beam facility, in one’s HRR (hospital referral region*) is associated with a higher likelihood of receiving proton beam therapy compared with those living […]
