CareConnection: Spring/Summer 2015
Bob McIsaac article
WINNING THE MATCH
Bob’s victory over cancer
It’s Thursday afternoon and Bob McIsaac walks into the tennis club where he has been a member for
over 25 years. He is ready for his fourth doubles tennis match of the week. At 84, Bob still moves
quickly across the tennis court, placing his shots with power and extreme accuracy.
It’s a winning strategy – the same as that used by radiation oncologists at Orange Coast Memorial
with CyberKnife®, the revolutionary robotic radiosurgery system that helped Bob battle stage IV
pancreatic cancer.
“CyberKnife is a painless, non-invasive alternative to traditional surgery,” says Ajmel Puthawala,
M.D., medical director of radiation oncology at Orange Coast Memorial. “It delivers beams of very
high-dose radiation with pinpoint precision – within the width of a hair – so we can destroy tumors
without harming the healthy tissue around them.”
CHALLENGING THE PROGNOSIS
Pancreatic cancer accounts for approximately three percent of all cancers in the United States, and
about seven percent of cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. Common symptoms
include dark urine, itchy skin and jaundice, or yellowing of the skin and eyes. Often, the early stages
of pancreatic cancers do not cause any visible signs or symptoms. When symptoms do present, the
disease will have likely spread beyond the pancreas.
This was the case for Bob. By the time he began having symptoms, the mass in his pancreas was
already nine centimeters long by three centimeters thick and involved a major artery. The cancer had
metastasized and doctors found cancerous lesions on his liver, which gave him a
10 percent chance of survival.
After six months of chemotherapy, the liver cancer was nearly gone, but the pancreatic tumor wasn’t
responding. That’s when his oncologist referred him to Dr. Puthawala at Orange Coast Memorial
Medical Center.
“CyberKnife is especially useful on highly complex, and what we historically called inoperable
tumors, such as the one Bob had,” says Dr. Puthawala. “Now, we’re able to help more patients become
cancer survivors.”
Dr. Puthawala immediately began preparing Bob for the CyberKnife procedure. He implanted
markers in the tumor and used advanced imaging technology to take high-definition pictures, which
were then digitally transferred directly to the CyberKnife system.
Bob remembers, “I had five CyberKnife treatments over five days. All I did was lay on my back for an
hour and the robotic arm moved around me. I had no pain or side effects. When I was finished, I went
straight to a tennis match.”
CLEAR ADVANTAGE
Patients with cancerous and noncancerous tumors virtually anywhere in the body, including the
prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas, and kidney, now have a pain-free, non-surgical treatment
option with CyberKnife. Patients are comfortably positioned on a treatment table as the CyberKnife’s
computer-controlled robot slowly moves around the patient, targeting the tumor from various
angles, and continually adjusting for any movement, even breathing.
Treatment typically ranges from one to five sessions, with each session lasting between 30 and 90
minutes. There are no hospital stays, no anesthesia and no incisions or cutting.
“In some cases, the tumor completely disappears,” says Dr. Puthawala. “In other cases, the tumor is
controlled, meaning the mass remains, but the cancer is eliminated. Our success rate is in excess of
95 percent.”
ACING THE MENTAL GAME
For Bob McIsaac, CyberKnife put the ball firmly in his court. In the four years since his pancreatic
cancer was eliminated, he’s been successfully treated for cancerous lesions in his liver, lung, lymph
nodes and shoulder – none of which has slowed him down. He works part-time at the business he
established in 1955, spends a lot of time cheering the home team at Angel Stadium and also enjoys as
much time on the tennis court as possible.
“Your mental attitude affects your outcome,” says Bob. “You have to keep living every day the best
you can.”
He adds, “My oncologist calls me a ‘walking miracle’, but the real blessing is that those doctors never
gave up on me. They, and CyberKnife, saved my life.”
For more information about the CyberKnife procedure
at Orange Coast Memorial, please call (714) 378-7900 or
visit memorialcare.org/cancer.