Sarcoma South UK Support Group Blog

RFA now available at The Royal Marsden

Posted by Rochelle on Tuesday 3rd March

Patients who were previously sent to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and the London Clinic for radiofrequency and microwave ablation (RFA) can now receive this on site at The Royal Marsden, rather than shuttling between hospitals. The machine is used to treat patients with small liver and lung metastases.

For details see The Royal Marsden Magazine - Winter 2014 page 5.

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The Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook

Posted by Rochelle on Wednesday 4th March

Subtitled Nutritious recipes for during and after cancer treatment, to share with friends and family this is a new book published last month. The author is Clare Shaw who is a consultant dietician in oncology at The Royal Marsden.

It costs £13.59 from Amazon or Book Depository.

Here's a sample recipe from the Cookbook: Homemade Pot Noodles.

You may also be interested in this free download Eating well when you have cancer - Royal Marsden Hospital

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Petition to help save sarcoma drug

Posted by Steve on Friday 6th March

Please sign this petition to HM Government to reinstate Regorafenib on the Cancer Drugs Fund list.

The drug regorafenib (Stivarga®) was approved last year as 3rd line treatment for patients with advanced Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour (a rare type of cancer found in the digestive system). Regorafenib is used to treat GIST cancer that is unresponsive to existing drugs imatinib and sunitinib. It has proved very successful, stopping disease growth or causing significant shrinkage, and is better tolerated by patients. Younger patients with a rare form of “Wildtype” GIST respond very well to regorafenib.

The withdrawal of this drug from the Fund means patients whose GIST cancer is inoperable or has spread widely and is not contained by alternatives have no other treatment options available and will die sooner than might have been the case with this drug.

We are calling on the decision to be reconsidered and regorafenib to be reinstated on the CDF list. There is currently no cure for inoperable GIST but targeted drugs like regorafenib enable a patient to live for considerably longer.

You can sign the petition at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/73911

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Old Harry Rocks image (adapted) is © Copyright Eirian Evans and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.