Us
-Too! Brampton General Meeting
January 11th, 2005
"The Latest in Chemotherapy Treatment"
by
Dr. S. D. Sehdev, Oncologist.
Over 55 members including
11 spouses listened to Dr. Sehdev's highly
technical talk detailing the latest in Chemotherapy.
Dr. Sehdev is a well known specialist
in his field and many of our members are or have been
under his care. At his last appearance in Oct 2001, Dr. Sehdev
had spoken to us on Hormonal
Therapy. In this, his latest
talk to the group, he focused mainly on Chemotherapy. The
agenda
included a review of prostate cancer in general, prostate
cancer data, epidemiology (trying to
establish cause or relationship) and available options when
hormonal therapy failed to work.
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Using detailed images, graphics and
animated slides, Dr. Sehdev covered the subject in great
depth, sharing with the group the aim and goal of chemotherapy,
chemotherapy history, where
and when it was applicable, some of the exciting and promising
new treatments available
and what the future may hold.
He discussed many aspects of the latest drugs, their clinical
study results and data showing the
steady strides being made not just in improving mortality,
but in addressing quality of life issues.
He also touched upon the side effects and the measures to
counteract them. The results of 2
large randomized trials were presented and summarized.
In the area of exciting new developments he mentioned newer
molecular, biological drugs in the
offing which were not chemo, safer and easier, many in pill
form, that could revolutionize future
treatment. He was hopeful that in a year or two, on a return
visit, he could possibly give us
a talk on some of these exciting new drugs.
He closed his talk with a slide and analogy from 'Star Trek'
with the promising note the
"future has to get better", quoting examples how
with the progress in treatments there were
survivors today who twenty years ago had been given six months.
The presentation also briefly touched
upon the Brampton Hospital situation, which should ease upon
completion of the new hospital. A picture of the proposed
new Brampton Hospital was shown - work
on the site located at Bovaird and Bramalea has started and
is expected to complete by July 2007.
To view, visit: http://www.williamoslerhc.on.ca
then go to the 'Redevelopment' link
A highly interactive Question
and Answer session followed which turned out equally
informative.
Excellent questions and comments were put forth by participating
members and received detailed
responses from Dr. Sehdev, specific to the individual's situation
- just exactly what we'd like to
achieve at this group setting.
The question of websites for useful
information came up and many useful links were
mentioned. Dr. Sehdev's website:
http://www.myphysician.ca/DrSSehdev
essentially serves as a portal for these links.
He cautioned,
however, on the indiscriminate use of websites that occasionally
appear in
internet searches as some unscrupulous operators were exploiting
prominent spots by
paying large fees to search engines. He advised to be wary
of 'quackery' and the
possible adverse interactions between 'herbal' remedies and
chemotherapy.
We were very pleased when Dr. Sehdev remarked that the Us
Too! Brampton website
itself was an excellent resource. It tied neatly with his
opening comment that the
tremendous knowledge base the group had built up helped make
the doctor's task
easier, with 'informed' patients actively involved in their
treatment.
It was a tremendous evening! We not only received
useful information but
could derive confidence and hope knowing that state-of-the-art
treatment
advances were at hand.
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AUDIO and SLIDES DOWNLOADS
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