Radiology And You - Patient Testimonials

Living With Cancer
Targeted Radiation Therapies Offer Hope to Patients

Walter Stancil, Tonsil Cancer Survivor
As long as Walter Stancil can remember, he has been healthy.  The youthful 63-year-old worked out regularly at a health spa, kept a manicured lawn and spent much of his free time playing with his grandchildren.  Then in 2005 he developed a persistent sore throat.  It was first treated conservatively with antibiotics, but when the problem didn’t go away, he made an appointment with a specialist who found that he had a rare tonsil cancer.

“I was totally surprised,” said the now 65-year-old Cary resident who is married with two daughters and four grandchildren.  “While my doctor didn’t make any promises, he said that they had good results with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.  He didn’t give me false hope, nor did he make it seem all doom and gloom.”

Radiation oncologist, Scott Sailer, MD, at Wake Radiology Oncology Services, worked hand-in-hand with Mark Graham, MD, Stancil’s medical oncologist.  They developed a two-month treatment of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) delivered five days a week and chemotherapy, which was given intravenously one day each week.

IMRT focuses the most intense beams of radiation on the cancerous cells to improve coverage and control tumors, while lessening the side effects on patients.  The higher dose of radiation allowed with IMRT increases the chance for a full recovery.  Typically, IMRT is effective in treating head and neck cancers and is also used for prostate, thyroid, lung, liver, brain and gynecologic tumors, lymphomas and sarcomas.

Although head and neck cancers are more common in men, about 80 percent of the cancers are associated with smoking, but that wasn’t the case with Stancil who had always maintained a healthy lifestyle.

“I had some low points, with having to be hospitalized just before Christmas and developing some erosion in my esophagus,” described Stancil.  “But I stayed focused on beating the cancer.”

Stancil is now in full remission.  His last PET scan showed no visible signs of cancer, and he’s back full-time at his job as state adjutant for the American Legion.  Stancil has regained all of the weight he lost during therapy.  “I go ahead and do more of the things I want to do now.  Most of all, it’s great that I can look ahead and plan for next week or next month.”