Each year, the president of the American Society for Radiation Oncology gets to choose the topic of his or her address. And, Dr. Leonard Gunderson, this year's ASTRO chairman and president, knew exactly what he wanted to say.

"Some [presidents] place emphasis on science," Gunderson mentioned when discussing his topic selection. "I centered on work-life balance because I believe we can all stand to be better physicians. . .if we have life outside of medicine."

It took a bleeding ulcer early in Gunderson's career to drive home that point--as Gunderson believed he could do it all, seeing patients during the day while doing research at night and not bothering to sleep. "It's important that those who have families don't abuse them by never being available. It's something that we don't talk about as often as we should. I wanted to try to encourage people to balance their lives."
For physicians, balancing their own lives while saving others' lives often isn't easy, says Gunderson. In addition, dealing with patients as whole individuals can also be a challenge--as these people-skills are often overlooked in medical school where emphasis is placed on sciences, such as chemistry, physiology, epidemiology and statistics.

"Both medical schools and training programs shouldn't be recruiting only the smartest and brightest, but we should make sure [potential applicants] have good social skills to effectively communicate with patients," he says. "That's what's important to caregivers: How do we communicate with our patients when they are faced with cancer diagnoses so we can give them not just cold hard facts but truth balanced with hope and compassion?"

One study presented at the conference showed that nearly 75 percent of physicians feel poorly prepared to speak to bereaved family and caregivers of patients who have received a cancer diagnosis. This study provided hard statistics to a difficult-to-quantify variable: emotional support.

Finding answers

This year's 53rd annual meeting theme, "Patient-focused, High-quality, Multidisciplinary Care” also aimed to provide a more holistic and unified approach to patients in what can be a fragmented field full of CT scans, biopsies and radiation and chemotherapy regimens.

Several noted clinical discussions analyzed dosage selections for chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Gunderson noted. For example, two presentations analyzed new prostate cancer approaches. One study compared side effects and survival with intensity modulated radiation as opposed to 3-dimensional conformal radiation. IMRT allows radiation to be more shaped to fit the tumor. "This analysis found what we suspected: a significant reduction in side effects during treatment with regard to the gastrointestinal tract and as well as the bladder. This was a meaningful reduction, which is important to both physicians as well as insurance carriers, who are wondering if the extra effort is worth it. This analysis of patients with prostate cancers shows it was."

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