Alpha TAU Medical – Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown is home to a national clinical trial that uses a new radiation therapy for inoperable pancreatic cancer.

Alpha TAU Medical – Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown is home to a national clinical trial that uses a new radiation therapy for inoperable pancreatic cancer.

The Daily Star

Dr. Timothy Korytko, the chief of radiation oncology at the Bassett Healthcare Network, said he finished treatment under the pancreatic cancer trial for Bassett’s first patient in Cooperstown, who also was the second patient enrolled in the trial nationwide.

He said Alpha Tau Medical’s Alpha Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy, or Alpha DaRT, is a way to “implant radiation into a tumor” to better target the radiation. Doctors use a metal source of radiation, he said, and for the pancreatic cancer study, a nonmagnetic MRI-safe metal gets put into the pancreas.

Many people receive a biopsy, Korytko added, where a camera is used in the stomach or intestine and a needle is put into the pancreas to get a sample.

“This trial uses that same system, where they use that camera and we can put the needle into the pancreas,” Korytko said. “Through that needle, we can posit this radioactive seed or this cylinder that has radiation on it. That cylinder is within the tumor, and then it gives off the radiation from the inside.”

Korytko said the study Bassett is participating in is being performed at some other sites around the country. After opening the trial a few months ago, he said Bassett treated its first eligible patient. Overall, Korytko said it went well and “met the criteria for the study.”

Ultimately, he said it is too soon to know for sure how well the procedure works, as part of the study is “assessing its safety and its efficacy.” It is far too early in the course of the study to know how it works, but Korytko said Bassett met the study’s guidelines.

Previously, Bassett has used this technique in clinical trials to treat skin cancer.

For skin cancer, Korytko added that doctors put the seeds in and they are then removed. He said the biggest difference between the skin cancer and pancreatic trials is that for pancreatic cancer patients, “the seeds stay in place.”

“They’re safe to be there,” Korytko said. “After two weeks, the radiation that is in there has been effectively given off, and the patient gets their treatment from inside over those two weeks. The main difference between the two is that in the pancreatic trial, they stay in place, we don’t go in there to take them out.”

Ideally, Bassett would continue to enroll more patients over time, Korytko said. There is a team at Bassett that identifies eligible patients within the hospital, and individuals sometimes reach out from outside of the hospital to participate in the trial at Bassett.

While he has not yet found a second patient, Korytko said at least once a week somebody reaches out and doctors decide if they are eligible for the trial.

The process will likely persist for six to nine months, he added, and because the trial is taking place across the country, once a certain patient threshold has been reached, the study would likely be closed. “It is very early in the clinical trial timeline” as of now, Korytko said.

Korytko said pancreatic cancer has many potential treatment options but still has a lot of room for improvement. He said it is a “difficult disease to control.”

“Hopefully that’s a good segue for people to consider things like clinical trials that are things that are going to hopefully help us learn more about new treatments and learn about how to potentially uncover new things that could be more helpful,” Korytko said.

Every year in New York state, 3,700 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, almost 2,800 of which die from the disease, according to the state Department of Health website.

Cooperstown is likely the only rural site where this particular study is being held, Korytko said. It is beneficial for people who receive care at Bassett as well as those reaching out from other places.

It is special to offer this type of care in a “place that many people call home,” Korytko said. If eligible, local individuals could avoid traveling to a larger, metro area for the treatment.

“It’s a big benefit for all of the people who are in central New York and are cared for by Bassett and the surrounding communities,” Korytko said. “It is taking steps to bring some of this high-tech cancer care closer to more people, which is the whole point of the research and development process.”