Brothers and Protons
About the Proton Therapy Center in Prague (Czech Republic).
We continue to talk about the clinics where Ufonda’s wards are treated. The Prague Proton Therapy Center became our partner in 2014. One of the most modern methods of treatment, accompanying treatment by pediatric oncologists, convenient location, attentive attitude to patients, the absence of language barriers - all this made possible our cooperation with the clinic. For Ufonda wards, the center offers discounts on treatment.
Proton therapy is one of the relatively new and most effective methods of radiation therapy. This is not a panacea for cancer, but a lifesaver in the treatment of certain types of tumors. There are a total of 52 such centers in the world (data for May 2014). 14 of them work in the United States, but even that number is not enough for a large country: it is estimated that there should be one proton center per 10 million inhabitants. Prague is just "closing" the whole Czech Republic. In Ukraine, children are not yet treated with proton therapy.
There were two brothers living in the Czech Republic, the eldest was Vaclav Lashtovka and the youngest was Pavel Lashtovka. They lived well, were engaged in advertising business, succeeded in this business. And suddenly their father got sick, he was diagnosed with cancer. The sons decided to cure the father, but the local doctors said: either surgery or radiation therapy, there are no other options, and the consequences are not happy in any case.
Northeast of Prague, Liben district. From the center, in general, not far, but the place is not quite touristy: busy roads, no souvenir shops, in beer bars only local. There are many hospital buildings on the hill above the highway, a whole block. And there, at the foot of the hill, a modern building - the Proton Therapy Center.
The building goes several floors deep. And in the farthest depth is a cyclotron - an installation that uses strong magnetic fields to accelerate protons to a speed equal to two-thirds the speed of light. The beam transport system delivers protons to the gentry, the circular moving part of the device inside which the patient is located. Gentry can rotate 360 degrees. Protons reach the patient through nozzles, which give the beam the desired shape.
All this is a real breakthrough in radiation therapy, one of the most effective ways to treat tumors. Its advantage is in a special, precision precision: a properly formed beam of protons affects only the tumor, limited by its limits. What does this compare to? Well, except with a needle and a sledgehammer. The usual radiotherapy kills both sick and healthy cells around the sick. Proton - only patients with cancer. However, in order to hit the target, you need serious training, studying the location of the tumor, making special individual masks. Proton therapy is especially effective when it comes to pediatric oncology, tumors of the central nervous system, vital and radiosensitive organs.
There are now five therapy rooms in the Prague center. Three of them are equipped with a gentry swivel system. Another - with a fixed beam (guidance on the tumor is achieved by changing the position of the patient on a robotic table). And in the latter the tumors of the eye are irradiated: the patient is seated in a special chair, the head is fixed; irradiation is synchronized with small movements of the patient’s eye.
We walk on the floors, look in the doctors’ offices, in the children’s playroom. I have a strange feeling that we are not in the clinic, that it is all scenery. The atmosphere is semi-home-semi-office: everyone is friendly, welcoming and friendly, at the same time everything is subordinated to the main thing in the work of the center - special accuracy and clarity.
Patients do not lie here, as in hospitals, but come for radiation sessions, which do not last very long. I am meeting Anton, he is from Moscow. Arrived in Prague by car with his parents and six-month-old younger sister. Anton is scheduled to have 27 radiation sessions, which are held every day, except weekends and holidays. And on weekends and holidays, the whole family gets in the car and goes on a little trip. Already visited Karlovy Vary, Germany, going to Paris. Anton Ewing’s sarcoma is a malignant tumor of the pelvis.
"His back pain kept him awake at night, he only fell asleep in the morning," says Anton’s father. He is waiting in the lobby when his son returns after the next session. - We underwent five courses of chemotherapy in Moscow. There was no effect. And then the doctors advised us to go to this center, they have already sent children here. We like everything here. We can choose the time for the procedures ourselves, and they do not last long, five minutes. There is no language barrier, the good doctor Stepan Gennadyevich tells us everything in detail and in an accessible way.
Anton is an adult guy, he understands that you can’t move during irradiation. In addition, a special fixing vacuum mattress helps. But the little ones have to be irradiated under general anesthesia. But doctors say that it is so shallow and short-lived that it does not have time to harm.
The brothers did not give up, began to think about how to save their father. We learned that in Germany, in Munich, there is the Hans Rinecker Proton Therapy Center. My father was taken there. Cured. And then the Lashtovka brothers decided to open such a center in their native Czech Republic. That their compatriots did not go to other countries, did not pay huge money for housing, for treatment.
"Good Dr. Stepan Gennadyevich" - his last name is Vinokurov - moved with his family to the Czech Republic 15 years ago. He studied at Vitebsk Medical University (Belarus), and after the fourth year he transferred to Charles University in Prague. He chose the specialty "radiation oncology". When it became known about the opening of the Proton Therapy Center, he sent a resume, passed a huge competition and was hired.
"All Russian-speaking patients come to me by default," says Vinokurov. - It’s easier for everyone, there is no communication barrier. In general, our team is international - Czechs, Slovaks, Germans work, I’m Belarusian. Most patients are from the Czech Republic, but they also come from nearby countries, including those that have their own proton therapy centers - because we have cheaper treatment. In addition, young patients receive radiation from us under the constant supervision of a pediatric oncologist, we cooperate in this regard with the University Clinic "Motol".
Vinokurov shows a children’s playroom, the concept of which was created by designers specially invited by the center’s management. On the walls - bunnies, sheep, butterflies, drawn by the children themselves. Wooden figurines on the table: doctor, patient, medical equipment. With their help, the doctor explains to the children how the treatment will take place.
- The method of proton therapy sometimes works real miracles. We had a patient from Slovakia, with a tumor in the area of the nasal sinuses, growing in the eye - Vinokurov begins to speak as if recounting a feature film. - All clinics offered her surgery with questionable results. She could lose her sight immediately or a little later, after normal exposure, she may have problems with intelligence.
The treatment we proposed was incredibly difficult: the tumor changed in size, and we had to constantly, before each session, adjust plans. We managed to kill the tumor, preserving both the eye and the intellect. How we rejoiced!
The Lashtovka brothers, with the help of Hans Rinecker, a famous German surgeon named after a clinic in Munich, opened the Prague Center in 2012. The land was provided free of charge by the state, provided that Czech children will also be treated free of charge. This condition is met. Today, the center operates in two shifts six days a week and can accommodate 2,500 patients a year.
31.03.2017