Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The technology used for ductal lavage could open up a whole new world of opportunity: Could the same procedure be used to treat malignancies locally instead of using conventional chemotherapy?
Doctors aren't ready yet to share their research in this area, but this - research - is where Warsaw has a connection to the procedure and to the Indianapolis Cancer Pavilion.
The purpose of the Catherine Peachey Fund is to provide preliminary grants and to help fund research, said Connie Rufenbarger, editor of the "Just Peachey" cookbook and well-known Warsaw breast cancer advocate.
"The only way we're gonna know if it works is to do it and capture the data," she said of ductal lavage.
Only 5 to 8 percent of cancer patients enroll in clinical trials, she said, which means most cancer treatments are based on the reactions of a minority of patients.
"We need to get the word out to women - 'You want to drive this wagon, you don't want to push it,'" she said.
Dr. Anna Maria Storniolo, clinical professor of medicine at IU School of Medicine, said there will soon be a national database for ductal lavage results and information, and Rufenbarger believes getting the procedure done in a research environment is key. The Catherine Peachey Fund will help finance some of the research for the trials at the IU Medical Center.
Doctors have to finance their own research, and Rufenbarger said she's frustrated that they must waste time writing grant applications instead of working on treating cancer.
"We can't do the science but we can ... raise money and save them some of that time," she said. "This is something we can do."
Many women see the IU Medical Center as an exclusive research and treatment center that they have access to only if they have a "connection," but Storniolo said just the opposite is true.
Anyone can call the IU Cancer Center for information or for a consultation, she said, and she hopes ductal lavage will help make that even more true.
"Ductal lavage hopefully will make medicine more uniform, more accessible, less mysterious and less dependent on who you know," she said.
To call the IU Cancer Center, call 888-600-IUCC (4822).
