PET / Proton Therapy confirmed effective for Prostate Cancer.

U.S. researchers suggest proton therapy -- a type of external beam radiation -- is effective for localized prostate cancer with minimal side effects.

In one study, researchers at the University of Florida in Jacksonville studied 211 men with low-, intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer. The men were treated with proton therapy, a specialized type of external beam radiation that uses protons instead of X-rays.

Nancy Mendenhall of the university's Proton Therapy Institute said the treatment was effective and the gastrointestinal and genitourinary -- reproductive organs and the urinary system -- side effects were generally minimal.

In a second study, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group in Philadelphia performed a case-matched analysis comparing high-dose external beam radiation therapy using a combination of photons (X-rays) and protons with brachytherapy (radioactive seed implants).

Over three years, 196 patients received the external beam treatments. Their data was compared to 203 men of similar stages who received brachytherapy over the same time period.

"For men with prostate cancer, brachytherapy and external beam radiation therapy using photons and protons are both highly effective treatments with similar relapse rates," said Dr. John J. Coen, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "Based on this data, it is our belief that men with prostate cancer can reasonably choose either treatment for localized prostate cancer based on their own concerns about quality of life without fearing they are compromising their chance for a cure."

The findings were published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology

George Vithoulkas: "Homeopathy's expansion in India is stunning."

George Vithoulkas is the founder of International Academy of Classical Homeopathy 

Nothing seems to excite him more than the thought of his days in India. George Vithoulkas, widely regarded as 'the maestro of classical homoeopathy', says it is heartening to see homoeopathy growing in India at a fast clip. For the record, the homoeopathic market is expected to double in the country to Rs 5,873 crore in five years. He offers a reason for this growth, "Morality and spirituality in its essential sense are stronger in India than other countries." 

He admits that his explanation sounds strange. "But it is true," he insists. "I know India from my experience of living there for a long period." Vithoulkas, now 79, studied homoeopathy in South Africa and in Kolkata. He passed out from the Indian Institute of Homoeopathy, Calcutta, in 1966, and returned to Greece to practise and teach the world's youngest system of medicine. 

The Greek physician says tragedy is yet to engulf India and other developing countries in a big way. The tragedy he is referring to is the one caused by the overuse of allopathic drugs. "Countries such as India, Pakistan and those in South America are lucky that they cannot supply chemical drugs for all their people." According to him, shortage of medical supplies is in a way a blessing in disguise for these non-developed countries: they haven't yet suffered the damage that chemical drugs inflict upon people in rich countries. 

But Vithoulkas knows it only too well that homoeopathy needs to grow much more to emerge as a 'real alternative' to the 'chemicals-infested' modern medicine, which has already made inroads into emerging markets. 

"At this moment, homoeopathy is not ready to take over the bulk of medical care in any country," he notes. But, he says, poor countries can afford to invest in promoting homoeopathy. "The conventional system of medicine has reached a dead end, and the new medicine will be the energy medicine that homoeopathy offers," he claims. But then, what was that about homoeopathy lacking in scientific evidence? 

He counters the argument raised famously in a 2005 Lancet article that compared the effect of homoeopathicmedicines to that of the placebo effect. "This is not an argument against homoeopathy. 

It is a pretentious excuse that the pharma industry uses to attack homoeopathy. It is almost ridiculous to believe that remedies that act on babies and animals have a placebo effect," he says. There is a tinge of sarcasm, too. "If homoeopaths have the power to instal in the patient belief that can cure without remedies, then I will salute them as superhuman. I know only one person who was able to treat on the basis of belief and that person was Jesus Christ." 

Let's not forget, he says, that it is homoeopathy that now epitomes 'evidence-based medicine', an idea originally introduced by practitioners of conventional medicine. Vithoulkas goes on to list reasons why governments should take solid initiatives to promote homoeopathy. 

"Governments are elected by the people with the hope that they will work and protect them, not pharmaceutical companies. Homoeopathy's remedies are cheap and can be produced locally. Using homoeopathic remedies also means saying no to the sideeffects of strong chemical drugs. Insurance systems that exist in the West have almost gone bankrupt due to massive rise in chronic diseases that require constant treatment with extremely expensive allopathic drugs." 

For original article read here: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/homoeopathys-growth-in-india-is-stunning-george-vithoulkas/articleshow/10448621.cms?intenttarget=no