There was just a symposium held at Methodist Hospital in Houston. The day long symposium covered both prostate cancer and kidney cancer. Barbara Christensen attended the kidney cancer side of the lectures and has been publishing on a kidney cancer listserv a summary of the information of what she learned.

I think that her first “chapter” of her report is very relevant for those of us who are dealing with prostate cancer. So here it is:

So much was covered and I wrote many notes. I went my full “report” to the
list two days ago and it hasn’t appeared so i will send it in “chapters.”
Hope
there is something here that may help each of you.
Chapter 1. Summary of my understandings:

April 28, 2007
Symposium – Methodist Hospital Houston-Dr. Robert Amato with members of his
interdisciplinary team of 20 specialists.
Reporting in-There was so much information. I tried to take notes of
information that has been asked on this list and added new information for
me.

If I could summarize the most important information for me:

1. Cancer should be considered as chronic illness.
Therefore is very important to have a multi-disciplined team in place. No
one doctor can do it all. As patients live longer through treatments, there are
more chances of mets to a variety of places, thus the need to have access to
many other specialists who work together as a team.

2. There are so many treatments being developed that I see great hope for
life to continue.

3. Being stable is a GOOD outcome – keeping in mind that this is a chronic
disease.

4. There is a need for a more personalized approach-the art of selecting the
right patient for the right treatment.

Barbara Christensen

Thank you Barbara.

Joel T. Nowak, MA, MSW