There is a new tool in the fight against an aggressive form of cancer.
Allegheny General Hospital was one of the first facilities to start trial-testing the treatment.
Stanley Pieseski has kept his sense of humor through what has been a trying time for him and his wife Judy.
“Friday night, we went to our regular bowling league and bowled three games, and Saturday we went down and found out he had a brain tumor,” Judy Pieseski said.
Stanley was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same kind of brain cancer that Senator John McCain was recently diagnosed with. Stanley's neuro-oncologist at Allegheny General Hospital, Dr. Tulika Ranjan, explains why this type of cancer can be difficult to treat.
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“When the surgeon goes in, they take out the whole tumor they can see. It's the palm they take out,” Ranjan said. “So the small, fingerlike projections, the small cells, the microscopic cells, are left behind.”
The average survival rate for those with glioblastoma is 14 months.
But Stanley is going on 21 months. Ranjan said a combination of radiation, chemo drugs and what's on Stanley's head likely helped his last this long. Seventy percent of the patients testing Optune have lived 20 months or longer.
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The wearable device delivering therapy to his brain is called Optune.
“We definitely feel something is helping him with his longevity and we feel like this is absolutely part of it,” Judy said.
And Stanley's attitude is likely helping too.
“No matter what it is, you gotta smile,” he said.
Optune costs $20,000 a month.
Allegheny General Hospital has worked to get several insurance companies to cover it and says the Novocure, the company that makes Optune, is also helping.
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