September 11th 2007

"Prostate Brachytherapy" by Dr. Gerard Morton

Our season's opening session was off to a great start with and eager audience
of around 55 members, wives and guests attending this session by
Dr. Gerard Morton on "Prostate Brachytherapy"

In this informative talk, Dr. Gerard Morton recounted the history of radiation
treatment for cancer leading to the development of brachytherapy techniques.
He discussed the early approaches to prostate cancer and how many of the
issues associated with radiation and brachytherapy had been progressively
resolved and side effects minimized. Using detailed graphical images he
explained how brachytherapy had been refined over the years through research
and by leveraging advances in technology to arrive at its current state-of-the art.
The talk explained permanent and temporary brachytherapy, how it could be
combined with external beam radiation, the likely candidates for each type,
the advantages and disadvantage and possible side effects. Dr. Morton detailed
the precision and science behind 'seeds' and 'implanting' techniques, how the
seeds worked and many of the pre and post procedure planning and steps
involved to optimize success and minimize side effects. Having covered the
procedural details Dr. Morton went on discussing the effectiveness of the
procedure, quality of life post brachytherapy, presented supportive data related
to many of the studies and talked about the road ahead for future developments.

Dr. Morton's excellent presentation was readily understood and connected
well with the audience. Following his talk members opened up with an
outpouring of questions and concerns. Dr. Morton addressed members queries
in detail making the Q& A session very interesting and educative. Overall
it was an evening enjoyed and appreciated by all and a great season's opening.
We are pleased to offer complete Audio and Presentation slide downloads
of this session - the links appear towards the lower part of this panel.

About Dr. Morton
Dr. Gerard Morton is a radiation oncologist at the Odette Cancer Centre,
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Assistant Professor at the University
of Toronto. He obtained his medical degree from University College Cork in
Ireland in 1985, and completed post-graduate training in Ireland in internal
medicine and clinical oncology. He has been on staff at Sunnybrook since
1995. He specializes in treating prostate cancer with radiation, and has a
special interest in brachytherapy and image guided therapies. He heads
the brachytherapy program at Sunnybrook. He has numerous publications
relating to brachytherapy and prostate cancer. He loves the outdoors
and is a keen long distance runner.

Our thanks to Dr. Morton for an excellent
and very informative presentation. We look
forward to having him back next year!

AUDIO & SLIDES DOWNLOADS

AUDIO:

NO AUDIO AVAILABLE

SLIDES:

NO SLIDES AVAILABLE