Us -Too! Brampton General Meeting 
Tuesday, November 8, 2005

"The Importance of Clinical Trials
&
Image Guidance in Radiation Therapy"
by
Dr. Andrew Bayley

Around 51 members, spouses and guests were treated to a high tech power point presentation
with color graphics and moving images which held their attention. Dr. Bayley shared with the group
some of the latest techniques and advances in the field of Image Guidance Radiation Therapy.

In the first part of his talk Dr. Bayley covered many aspects of Clinical Trials and why
they were so important in the search and development of new knowledge. He discussed
the various types of trials and what was studied, their different phases, the benefits, risks
and ethical responsibilities of the investigators and how these were regulated by Health
Canada. He covered the informed consent process, the eligibility criterion and the bodies
involved in the decision making process. He then went on presenting some of the important
trials of the past and how these had helped improve Radiation Treatment of Prostate cancer
substantiating the results with statistical data. He talked about some of the leading edge trials
coming soon across Canada and important clinical trials at the PMH. He concluded this
section with slides on the 'bench top' laboratory, DNA Micro Arrays and how this research
could lead to individualized patient treatments at PMH -UHN.

The second part of Dr. Bayley's presentation covered the development and advances that had
occurred over the last 10 -12 years and how they had significantly improved the outcome of
Radiation therapy for Prostate cancer treatment. Using embedded videos in the presentation he
reviewed some of the 'new toys' in image guided radiation and their impact before and during
the treatment. Key areas presented included gold seed markers, CT scanning and MRI, the use
of individualized field shapes and arrangements, IMRT and Cone Beam CT and in future the
new MRI simulator and the new PET scan which could monitor the activity of the cancer and its
response to radiation. In closing Dr. Bayley acknowledged the staff, his colleagues in Radiation
Oncology, in Radiation Therapy and Radiation Physics.[Many of the colleagues he acknowledged
have in fact presented at our meetings or will be presenting in the future]

After his talk Dr Bayley attended to queries from several members, many with their spouses,
as they met up with him during the coffee break to have their questions answered. This
trend continued for the rest of the evening so this event's Question & Answer
session turned into several one-on-one sessions.

Dr Bayley went through well past our closing time with small groups for more focused
personal [and group] discussions offering members advise on their specific situation.

AUDIO RECORDING & SLIDES

We are pleased to offer both the Audio recording as well as a secure Acrobat (.pdf)
[printer friendly] file of the presentation slides.
Please follow the links below or copy and paste the URL provided.
[Our audio use RealAudio format, so if you don't already have
it you will need to install the current RealAudio player.
To download a free player, go to the Real Networks Website]

Audio: ''The Importance of Clinical Trials
& Image Guidance In Radiation Therapy:
http://ustoo-brampton.com/Audiostreams/Bayley/trialsimageguidance.rm
[5,848 Kbytes, Talk time: 00:46:31]
Down load times: 
Approx.: 32 Mins. (56KBaud)
Approx.: 5 Mins.  (384KBaud)

Library call Number: Audiobook 616.99463 Bay

SLIDES
Note: The slides of this presentation have been adjusted from the original presented
in background and text colors to make them printer friendly. The presentation is
also split into 2 parts. These adjustments are essential to reduce file sizes for easier
downloads- the information content is not effected in any way.

Part 1: http://www.ustoo-brampton.com/Clinicaltrials.pdf
[Acrobat File (.pdf) Pages 42, Size 1,063 Kbytes]
Part 2: http://www.ustoo-brampton.com/Imageguidance.pdf
[Acrobat File (.pdf) Pages 37, Size 4,823 Kbytes]

Announcements were also made at this event regarding our participation at several
Awareness Events and the urgent need for volunteers [see below for details]

The limited support by Us Too! Brampton members at the Bramalea Live Theater's
recent performance in our benefit was also brought to member's attention with a
request to do better next time [or they may not be a next time!] and that would
certainly mean a lost opportunity to us all as group.

Thanks to all members and a special note of thanks to
Dr. Bayley for a very informative talk at this event.