September 15, 2024 • 11 mins
Original Air Date: September 15, 2024
Dr. Shaun Zimberg is the medical director of ARC, Advanced Radiation Centers of NYC and has pioneered new technology to protect the body when using radiation to treat prostate cancer.
Dr. Shaun Zimberg is the medical director of ARC, Advanced Radiation Centers of NYC and has pioneered new technology to protect the body when using radiation to treat prostate cancer.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Greasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, and again I do
not know if all listeners are aware, but when it
comes to nine to eleven cancers, the most common is
skin cancer. But for men, the next leading cancer nine
eleven cancer is prostay cancer. And joining me this morning,
(00:31):
doctor Sean Zimberg. He has pioneered the bioprotect balloon rectal spacer.
He is the medical director of the Advanced Radiation Centers
of New York and has been since two thousand and six.
And you have an innovative way now of treating prostate cancer.
(00:53):
So tell us all about it, doctor Zimberg, and welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you, Shelly. I appreciate the opportun unity to talk
to you about the technologies that we use and particularly
about prostate cancer. This month, as you said, is Prostate
Cancer Awareness months. You know it's something we should like.
All cancers are all health issues that are important to people.
We should be talking about them really all the time,
(01:18):
but this month particularly important and as you mentioned in
a similar way that breast cancer is the most common
cancer in women. Pros stay cancer is the most common
cancer in men. Uh, and so it does affect about
one in seven men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.
And I think the importance of talking about it. Men
don't always talk about their health issues, I think sometimes
(01:41):
as as much as they should.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And prostate cancer is something that can be detected early.
And I think again talking about it and using this
month as a catalyst to be able to have more
men thinking about that, you know, whether they're seeing their
physician or their family, is you know, maybe suggesting they
should get their health in order. A simple blood test
(02:07):
is really the most the easiest thing that can be done,
and it's the most powerful detector of prosta cancer that
we have available.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And how often should a man be tested? Is it yearly?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Typically yearly? The blood test is called the PSA prostates
specific antigen, again, a simple blood test. Most organizations suggest
that starting at the age of fifty that a man
should be getting that on an annual basis. And you know,
when you get it annually, you can start to look
at trends over time to make sure that there's nothing
(02:42):
going on, you know, when you're when you're in your
late fifties or sixties or seventies, you have you have
quite a number of tests that you can look back on.
Just again, just like women get mammograms on an annual basis,
and they can use those to the detect if anything's changing.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Is it a symptom when men have to awaken in
the middle of the night to use the restroom, is
that a symptom, Is that a precursor or is it
totally not related to prostate cancer?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, it can be related, but that's a very very
common aging sort of thing that happens to men. As
men get older, they develop something called BPH or benign
prosthetic hypertrophy. The prostate just gets a little bit enlarged,
and that can cause men to have to get to
the bathroom at night. So I wouldn't want people to
(03:34):
think that that normal sort of aging thing that happens
is something that they should be too concerned about. But
they should always see their urologists and they can certainly
talk about what the issues may be or do some
tests and be able to determine what's going on. But again,
at the age of fifty, some organizations suggests the age
of forty even or if you have a first degree
(03:55):
relative that has prostay cancer, sometimes even earlier. But that's
some blood tests in addition to senior urologists. Those are
all things that are very simple, very easy to do,
and they lead to early detection of prostay cancer. We'll
talk a little bit. I'm sure about what we do
next in terms of curing cross stay cancer and the
technologies we have, but the first step is getting it
(04:16):
detected early and not later, because again, the goal here
is to cure men with prostate cancer, and that's always
easier when it's early.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I'm speaking with doctor Sean Zimberg. He is the medical
director of the Advanced Radiation Centers of New York. So
tell us about the treatments that are available and how
what you do at the radiation centers is different from
perhaps other treatment centers.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Sure well, at ARC Advanced Radiation Centers of New York,
I'm a radiation oncologist. So that's what we do here.
We treat cancer with radiation. We treat all forms of
cancer that are appropriate for radiation. Radio is one of
the three i'd say main tenants of how cancer is treated,
(05:05):
surgery being one way that cancer is treated chemotherapy or
systemic or mute immune therapies by a medical oncologist, and
then radiation is delivered by physicians and teams like myself
radiation oncologists. We are a very large practice in the
metro New York area and probably one of the busier
(05:30):
concentrations on prostate cancer specifically, again it being the most
common cancer in men, we see quite a bit of
it when prostay cancer is detected. There are two main
ways that prostate cancer is treated. One could be surgically
to remove the prostate. The other what I do is
to radiate the prostate and there are different ways to
do that, and so it's a non invasive method to
(05:55):
actually cure prostate cancer. That's equivalent to surgery. So men
do not have to go through sturgical resection and a
lot of the functional problems that can go along with
surgery can be minimized.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
That's the thing. The side effects, So are there side
effects as well with radiation? I think we all know
with surgery there are potentially very serious, potentially serious side effects,
But how about with radiation? What are the side effects
you can expect there?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Well, things have come a long way, you know, think
of your cell phone twenty years ago versus today. Everything
we do in radiation, for the most part, is very
technologically advanced, so it's all very computer integrated. And so
as technologies have improved our ability to see inside the
body even seconds before we treat somebody, to be able
(06:51):
to be extraordinarily accurate, we can now do things that
you know, twenty years ago weren't possible. The most important
thing with radiation is we're trying to give the cancer
as much dose as possible, but all the normal tissues
as little dose as possible. And so the better we
are at aiming, the better we are at targeting, the
better we are at being able to see inside the
(07:13):
body and look at the tissues, the better our computers
are at modeling the radiation. Everyone's body is so different.
All of that has brought us to where we are today,
which is where we can deliver very high doses of radiation,
sometimes in just five days. There are treatments. Now we
can do this whole thing within five days. That used
to be nine weeks of treatment, and we still do
(07:34):
that in certain cases, but things have changed quite a bit,
so we can now deliver doses that were way higher
than in the past, safer than we could before. The
specific complications that can happen, for example, in surgery, like
in continence, urinary in continence, or sexual dysfunction, those things
can happen in radiation as well, but typically far far less.
(07:58):
And all of these advancements in technology we'll talk about
one in particular in a moment, those have all allowed
us again to improve cure rates but decrease the complication rates.
And again, I think most well anyone with any kind
of cancer, but we're talking specifically about prospect cancer and men.
The goal, really men want to gravitate towards the easier
(08:21):
treatment on their body. The treatment is going to give
them the highest share with the least amount of complication.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Is this always an option or is it sometimes absolutely
necessary to do the surgery.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No, Interestingly, it's actually the opposite. As men have more
advanced cancers or the prospect cancer becomes more advanced, surgery
is actually a little more difficult to get all the
cancer out. Radiation can cast a wider net, and so
it can cover larger amounts of areas like the lymph
(08:55):
node areas if we're concerned that they're involved when project
cancer is very early and it's found in a very
encapsulated stage, then almost anything that we know will treat
the prostate should provide a very high cure. So surgery
is an excellent option. Radiation is an excellent option, and
there's different ways to do radiation, either with external beams
(09:17):
of radiation where in the office or hospital setting we
can deliver radiation. We have eight facilities in the metro area,
all at state of the art equipment to do that.
We also can put radioactive seas into the prostates, something
that we've done for decades, but now using very sophisticated
computer technology, are able to get get everything up very
very unique. One of the more significant Please, I.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Was going to say, we only have a couple of
minutes left, So what do you need to say that
we have not touched on here?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Well, you heard, you heard. Actually you mentioned the bioprotect balloon,
which is which is just one of the things that
we use to try to increase that separation between the
dose to the cancer and keeping dose away from normal tissues.
So you know, when men get a rectal exam, a
digital rectal exam, a d are the physicians we're feeling
(10:09):
the prostate for any lumps or bumps, and we know
we do that through the rectum, and so the rectum
and the prostrate are very close to each other, and
when we give radiation, the rectum can be can can
suffer some damage. So in the past we've been developing
these technologies to move physically move the rectum and prostrate
away from each other. And one of the most amazing
(10:31):
technologies that has been FDA approved about one year now,
and actually at ARC we were the first in the
country to perform this procedure on men with prostate cancer.
It's age sausage or pancake shape balloon that actually blows up.
It's inserted between the rectum and the prostate. We blow
up that with some saline and while the patient's getting radiation,
(10:55):
over the weeks of radiation or so, the rectum is
physically moved away from the prostate, getting far less radiation
dose and having therefore a much lower risk of complications
and not just for rectal complications, but also for sexual
and urinary improvements as well. And that dissolves over time.
(11:16):
That balloon goes away after a few months.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And I'm sorry, but we are out of time, but again,
Doctor Sean Zimberg, thank you if you need to reach him.
Doctor Zimberg is with the Radiation Centers of New York ARC.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
You've been listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Greasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, and again I do
not know if all listeners are aware, but when it
comes to nine to eleven cancers, the most common is
skin cancer. But for men, the next leading cancer nine
eleven cancer is prostay cancer. And joining me this morning,
(00:31):
doctor Sean Zimberg. He has pioneered the bioprotect balloon rectal spacer.
He is the medical director of the Advanced Radiation Centers
of New York and has been since two thousand and six.
And you have an innovative way now of treating prostate cancer.
(00:53):
So tell us all about it, doctor Zimberg, and welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you, Shelly. I appreciate the opportun unity to talk
to you about the technologies that we use and particularly
about prostate cancer. This month, as you said, is Prostate
Cancer Awareness months. You know it's something we should like.
All cancers are all health issues that are important to people.
We should be talking about them really all the time,
(01:18):
but this month particularly important and as you mentioned in
a similar way that breast cancer is the most common
cancer in women. Pros stay cancer is the most common
cancer in men. Uh, and so it does affect about
one in seven men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.
And I think the importance of talking about it. Men
don't always talk about their health issues, I think sometimes
(01:41):
as as much as they should.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
And prostate cancer is something that can be detected early.
And I think again talking about it and using this
month as a catalyst to be able to have more
men thinking about that, you know, whether they're seeing their
physician or their family, is you know, maybe suggesting they
should get their health in order. A simple blood test
(02:07):
is really the most the easiest thing that can be done,
and it's the most powerful detector of prosta cancer that
we have available.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And how often should a man be tested? Is it yearly?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Typically yearly? The blood test is called the PSA prostates
specific antigen, again, a simple blood test. Most organizations suggest
that starting at the age of fifty that a man
should be getting that on an annual basis. And you know,
when you get it annually, you can start to look
at trends over time to make sure that there's nothing
(02:42):
going on, you know, when you're when you're in your
late fifties or sixties or seventies, you have you have
quite a number of tests that you can look back on.
Just again, just like women get mammograms on an annual basis,
and they can use those to the detect if anything's changing.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Is it a symptom when men have to awaken in
the middle of the night to use the restroom, is
that a symptom, Is that a precursor or is it
totally not related to prostate cancer?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, it can be related, but that's a very very
common aging sort of thing that happens to men. As
men get older, they develop something called BPH or benign
prosthetic hypertrophy. The prostate just gets a little bit enlarged,
and that can cause men to have to get to
the bathroom at night. So I wouldn't want people to
(03:34):
think that that normal sort of aging thing that happens
is something that they should be too concerned about. But
they should always see their urologists and they can certainly
talk about what the issues may be or do some
tests and be able to determine what's going on. But again,
at the age of fifty, some organizations suggests the age
of forty even or if you have a first degree
(03:55):
relative that has prostay cancer, sometimes even earlier. But that's
some blood tests in addition to senior urologists. Those are
all things that are very simple, very easy to do,
and they lead to early detection of prostay cancer. We'll
talk a little bit. I'm sure about what we do
next in terms of curing cross stay cancer and the
technologies we have, but the first step is getting it
(04:16):
detected early and not later, because again, the goal here
is to cure men with prostate cancer, and that's always
easier when it's early.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I'm speaking with doctor Sean Zimberg. He is the medical
director of the Advanced Radiation Centers of New York. So
tell us about the treatments that are available and how
what you do at the radiation centers is different from
perhaps other treatment centers.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Sure well, at ARC Advanced Radiation Centers of New York,
I'm a radiation oncologist. So that's what we do here.
We treat cancer with radiation. We treat all forms of
cancer that are appropriate for radiation. Radio is one of
the three i'd say main tenants of how cancer is treated,
(05:05):
surgery being one way that cancer is treated chemotherapy or
systemic or mute immune therapies by a medical oncologist, and
then radiation is delivered by physicians and teams like myself
radiation oncologists. We are a very large practice in the
metro New York area and probably one of the busier
(05:30):
concentrations on prostate cancer specifically, again it being the most
common cancer in men, we see quite a bit of
it when prostay cancer is detected. There are two main
ways that prostate cancer is treated. One could be surgically
to remove the prostate. The other what I do is
to radiate the prostate and there are different ways to
do that, and so it's a non invasive method to
(05:55):
actually cure prostate cancer. That's equivalent to surgery. So men
do not have to go through sturgical resection and a
lot of the functional problems that can go along with
surgery can be minimized.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
That's the thing. The side effects, So are there side
effects as well with radiation? I think we all know
with surgery there are potentially very serious, potentially serious side effects,
But how about with radiation? What are the side effects
you can expect there?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Well, things have come a long way, you know, think
of your cell phone twenty years ago versus today. Everything
we do in radiation, for the most part, is very
technologically advanced, so it's all very computer integrated. And so
as technologies have improved our ability to see inside the
body even seconds before we treat somebody, to be able
(06:51):
to be extraordinarily accurate, we can now do things that
you know, twenty years ago weren't possible. The most important
thing with radiation is we're trying to give the cancer
as much dose as possible, but all the normal tissues
as little dose as possible. And so the better we
are at aiming, the better we are at targeting, the
better we are at being able to see inside the
(07:13):
body and look at the tissues, the better our computers
are at modeling the radiation. Everyone's body is so different.
All of that has brought us to where we are today,
which is where we can deliver very high doses of radiation,
sometimes in just five days. There are treatments. Now we
can do this whole thing within five days. That used
to be nine weeks of treatment, and we still do
(07:34):
that in certain cases, but things have changed quite a bit,
so we can now deliver doses that were way higher
than in the past, safer than we could before. The
specific complications that can happen, for example, in surgery, like
in continence, urinary in continence, or sexual dysfunction, those things
can happen in radiation as well, but typically far far less.
(07:58):
And all of these advancements in technology we'll talk about
one in particular in a moment, those have all allowed
us again to improve cure rates but decrease the complication rates.
And again, I think most well anyone with any kind
of cancer, but we're talking specifically about prospect cancer and men.
The goal, really men want to gravitate towards the easier
(08:21):
treatment on their body. The treatment is going to give
them the highest share with the least amount of complication.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Is this always an option or is it sometimes absolutely
necessary to do the surgery.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No, Interestingly, it's actually the opposite. As men have more
advanced cancers or the prospect cancer becomes more advanced, surgery
is actually a little more difficult to get all the
cancer out. Radiation can cast a wider net, and so
it can cover larger amounts of areas like the lymph
(08:55):
node areas if we're concerned that they're involved when project
cancer is very early and it's found in a very
encapsulated stage, then almost anything that we know will treat
the prostate should provide a very high cure. So surgery
is an excellent option. Radiation is an excellent option, and
there's different ways to do radiation, either with external beams
(09:17):
of radiation where in the office or hospital setting we
can deliver radiation. We have eight facilities in the metro area,
all at state of the art equipment to do that.
We also can put radioactive seas into the prostates, something
that we've done for decades, but now using very sophisticated
computer technology, are able to get get everything up very
very unique. One of the more significant Please, I.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Was going to say, we only have a couple of
minutes left, So what do you need to say that
we have not touched on here?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Well, you heard, you heard. Actually you mentioned the bioprotect balloon,
which is which is just one of the things that
we use to try to increase that separation between the
dose to the cancer and keeping dose away from normal tissues.
So you know, when men get a rectal exam, a
digital rectal exam, a d are the physicians we're feeling
(10:09):
the prostate for any lumps or bumps, and we know
we do that through the rectum, and so the rectum
and the prostrate are very close to each other, and
when we give radiation, the rectum can be can can
suffer some damage. So in the past we've been developing
these technologies to move physically move the rectum and prostrate
away from each other. And one of the most amazing
(10:31):
technologies that has been FDA approved about one year now,
and actually at ARC we were the first in the
country to perform this procedure on men with prostate cancer.
It's age sausage or pancake shape balloon that actually blows up.
It's inserted between the rectum and the prostate. We blow
up that with some saline and while the patient's getting radiation,
(10:55):
over the weeks of radiation or so, the rectum is
physically moved away from the prostate, getting far less radiation
dose and having therefore a much lower risk of complications
and not just for rectal complications, but also for sexual
and urinary improvements as well. And that dissolves over time.
(11:16):
That balloon goes away after a few months.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And I'm sorry, but we are out of time, but again,
Doctor Sean Zimberg, thank you if you need to reach him.
Doctor Zimberg is with the Radiation Centers of New York ARC.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
You've been listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
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