Real-Life Communication
You are an oncologist. You are speaking to the parents of a six-week-old
infant. You have discovered bilateral retinoblastoma in each of the baby's
eyes.
There are two options for treating this disease. Radiation therapy
can be used, but may increase the risk of future cancers.
Or a surgeon
could remove both of the infant's eyes. That eliminates the tumors, but
offers the baby no chance of vision.
"The field of medicine is growing
by leaps and bounds. There is a lot of information to read both from written
texts and gathered from clinical studies," says Dr. Luci Chen. She is an oncologist.
"An
oncologist needs to assimilate this information and be able to present this
to a patient to help determine what options for treatment are available."
Read
the following information (by Dr. Luci Chen) and answer the parents'
questions:
Bilateral retinoblastoma is a tumor in the
eye. It can affect the vision of a patient. In rare cases, bilateral retinoblastoma
can affect both eyes. Some vision may be preserved if the tumor is small enough.
Small tumors can be treated with radiation therapy, and cured.
Radiation
therapy is a fairly new specialty -- radiation was discovered in 1895. The
early use of radiation to treat cancer was reported in the late 1890s. We
also have reports of curing cancer in the 1940s with radiation therapy.
Patients
with the condition will often develop bone tumors because they are genetically
at risk. Radiation therapy may increase the probability of a second bone tumor.
Parents'
questions:
- What is bilateral retinoblastoma?
- How long has radiation therapy been used to treat cancer?
- What are the disadvantages of radiation therapy?