TODAY'S ISSUE
Gwinnett in forefront of new prostate cancer technology
By Peg Jones
Marketing Specialist
Atlanta Oncology Associates
Special to GwinnettForum.com

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. Sept. 13, 2005 -- The Cancer Center of Gwinnett, an affiliate of Atlanta Oncology Associates, now offers BAT (B-mode Acquisition and Targeting) ultrasound that pinpoints a prostate tumor's exact location before radiation therapy. This technology allows doctors to more effectively deliver radiation while minimizing harm to surrounding organs.

Quinn

During the course of treatment, the prostate gland can shift, making accurate targeting more difficult. BAT ultrasound uses a probe placed on the skin surface to acquire the precise prostate position. By linking BAT with the delivery of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), an accurate target is provided which results in a maximum dose to the tumor. Healthy tissue is spared reducing the possibility of side effects.

Prior to the introduction of BAT technology, therapists relied on a weekly CT scan to determine the location of the prostate gland for targeting. Dr. Mark Quinn, medical director of the Lawrenceville based clinic, says: "As radiation oncologists, we work to ensure that the radiation being delivered is directed to the tumor and not to healthy tissue. BAT enables us greater precision by targeting the tumor immediately prior to treatment."

In treatment of prostate cancer, Atlanta Oncology Associates provides conventional radiation, prostate seed implants and the newest technologies of IMRT and temporary prostate implants through its ten centers. The Gwinnett center is located adjacent to Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville. Because of the large population served, the Gwinnett center is one of two lead clinics where new therapies and technologies are first introduced.

Dr. Quinn says: "Our range of therapies puts us at the forefront of fighting prostate cancer. BAT is an important new component to our increasing accuracy in radiation delivery which results in a higher probability for cure. It is a significant improvement in treatment that we have now brought to patients in Gwinnett County."

Recent patient, Gerald Peterson, summarizes his treatment experience by stating, "Everyone at Atlanta Oncology was very professional and efficient." Peterson says that for him prostate cancer is no longer a concern. "I have total confidence that the doctors did everything right."

Several major cancer treatment centers across the country utilize BAT ultrasound in conjunction with radiation therapy. The technology requires an investment of over $100,000 per machine. BAT is manufactured by NOMOS, a Pittsburgh based company which was founded in 1993 to introduce IMRT to the marketplace.

Atlanta Oncology Associates is among the first treatment groups to bring this technology to patients in the southeast region of the US.

Dr. Quinn adds: "With the opening of our first clinic in 1973, it has been our goal to be a leader in radiation therapy. That desire to give our patients access to the highest quality of care continues to be the guiding principle as we financially invest in the latest technologies. While BAT is the newest to be implemented, it will be followed by a number of exciting advances planned for introduction in Gwinnett within the coming months."

With six centers in the Atlanta metro region, Atlanta Oncology Associates also operates clinics in Blairsville, Macon, Hawkinsville and one in Panama City, FL. Ten physicians and nearly 100 support staff specialize in treating all types of cancer with over 1700 patients treated annually.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Seeing volunteer outpouring at Center gives hope to all
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

SEPT. 13, 2005 -- Visiting the Salvation Army Center on Sugarloaf Parkway last Thursday gave me a great feeling, seeing the outpouring of assistance Gwinnett is giving victims of Hurricane Katrina. From talking to other people throughout the country, other communities in the nation are also finding ways to help the hurricane victims get on their feet.

Hundreds of people are flocking to the Gwinnett Center, either with contributions, or to volunteer. They have both been sorely needed, as the Lawrenceville Salvation Army has been overwhelmed with hurricane victims descending on it.

One thing for certain: people know where the Salvation Army Center is. The director of operations at the center, Michelle Wilson, had been concerned that the location might not be known to people, since the Sugarloaf Parkway location near Lawrenceville is not in a city, and somewhat remote. "That's no longer a worry," she said. "Hurricane Katrina has definitely put our location on the map in people's minds."

Through last Wednesday, 6,570 people had been assisted by the Center. "We only had 600 people yesterday, but 1,000 the day before," another Salvation Army official said.

We asked one of the volunteers directing people at the door: "What do you need most." The answer came back immediately: "Of course, we always need canned goods, for our stock continually goes out the door. But what most families also need is a can opener. None of the families coming in here have a can opener, and they need that to open the cans we give them."

As volunteers returned for another day of service, they signed in. New ones had to fill out some paperwork. So far, the Gwinnett volunteers had worked some 13,481 hours in the hurricane relief.

An early volunteer was Shursten Dreyer of Lawrenceville. When she came in, she recognized the need to organize the floor of the food shelter, putting up tables for the different canned items, and working out a plan of how volunteers would fill the boxes and bags for victims. When we were there, she was using the chapel area to brief new volunteers on the procedures, taking charge very much like an Army general. But there was more. After she completed the briefing, she paused, and they led the group in prayer, thanking the Lord for the volunteers, and asking for help in their efforts. It is a powerful message.

Virtually every person arriving has a story. One lady from Louisiana was helped, and when leaving the building, thought she recognized a dog in a car in the parking lot. She ran back inside, and told volunteers that she had been separated from her parents since the storm, and was sure that the dog in the parking lot car was theirs. "Could my parents be here?" she asked, excitedly. Lo and behold, a run through the Center found her parents, and the family was reunited at the Salvation Army Center.

Stories like these inspire you. And it is this outpouring of support, of help, of assistance, the American tradition of wanting to help others in need, that gives hope for the victims of the hurricane, and for the country.

It speaks to the American sense of humanity as a people. Though the world is changed forever for so many in Katrina's path, our people will overcome.

Assistance is still needed. To volunteer with the Salvation Army in Lawrenceville, call the help line at 678 225 0885.

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UPCOMING
9/13: Fall i nto fun at annual Suwanee Day festival on Saturday

The 2005 Suwanee Day festival will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, September 17, with the steady beat of marching feet and high school drum corps in a one-plus-mile parade. Twelve hours later, the annual community celebration will end with the rhythm of a classic rock concert and the bang of a fireworks display.

Suwanee Day offers fun for the entire family; arts and crafts, free entertainment, a wide selection of food, and rides and attractions for children will be available. The festival takes place at Suwanee's Town Center Park, at the intersection of Buford Highway and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.

More than 100 arts and crafts exhibitors and a couple dozen food vendors will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. while a series of performers will provide entertainment from the Town Center Park stage. The free performances throughout the day range in style from hip-hop to ballet and Southern rock to Andean rhythms to bluegrass twang.

Many of the food vendors will remain open for the festival's evening performances, including a free concert by Classic Rock All Stars at 8 p.m.; the concert is sponsored by Bowen Family Homes.

Mosaic by Nina Beaver is featured at Suwanee Day Saturday

Classic Rock All Stars is a quartet of musicians who represent some of the top bands from the '60s and '70s, thus providing a hit-after-hit performance. These are the guys who wrote and sang the songs for groups like Blues Image, Cannibal and the Headhunters, Iron Butterfly, Rare Earth, and Sugarloaf.

Entry into the Suwanee Day festival is free. Last year, about 30,000 people attended Suwanee Day during its inaugural year at Town Center Park. "It's been a great day, that's for sure," said Stephen Ackerman of Dacula, about last year's festival, which he attended with his family.

Free shuttle transportation between designated off-site parking locations and Town Center Park will run continuously from 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Off-site parking locations include:

Free shuttle transportation between designated off-site parking locations and Town Center Park will run continuously from 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Off-site parking locations include:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
4833 Suwanee Dam Road

Level Creek Elementary School
4488 Tench Road

Publix at McGinnis Crossing
McGinnis Ferry and Peachtree Industrial

Shawnee North Business Center
305 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, across from Smithtown Road

Systemax/Global Computer
120 Satellite Boulevard

The colorful logo for this year's festival was designed by Buford resident Patricia Gee, whose design was selected from among 31 submitted in a competition sponsored by Richport Properties.

For more information about Suwanee Day, visit www.suwaneeday.com or call Suwanee City Hall at 770/945-8996.

RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
Glennviille native spends life as Baptist missionary

Laura Belle Barnard (1907-1992), a Free Will Baptist missionary, humanitarian, and educator, was born on February 13, 1907 and reared in Glennville. After graduation from high school, she attended South Georgia Teachers College (later Georgia Southern University) in Statesboro, and then transferred to Columbia Bible College in Columbia, S.C.. She graduated from Columbia in 1932, and shortly thereafter she sensed a call to evangelical mission work.

Laura Belle Barnard

In 1935 Barnard was commissioned for mission work in India by the General Conference of Free Will Baptists of the South. That year the General Conference merged with the Cooperative General Association of Free Will Baptists, a group in the Midwest and Southwest, to form the National Association of Free Will Baptists. She became the first missionary of the newly formed denomination.

Barnard began her mission in Kotagiri, South India, in the summer of 1935. She worked mostly among the "untouchables," the lowest class in the Hindu caste system. In the early 1940s she moved back to the United States and served briefly as a teacher at the fledgling Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee, but she soon returned to India, where she remained until 1957. Upon completion of her master's degree at Columbia Bible College in 1960, she became a professor of missions at the Free Will Baptist Bible College, from which she retired in 1972. Barnard wrote a number of books, including His Name among All Nations (1946), which is a theology of missions, and Touching the Untouchables (1985), her autobiography.

Barnard retired to her hometown of Glennville, where she engaged in numerous ministries, including humanitarian aid to Mexican migrant workers. She died there on March 9, 1992

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Perhaps the major problem concerning the poor

"The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time."

-- Willem de Kooning, Dutch born American abstract expressionist painter, (1904-1997).

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

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