Anastasia Zavorotnyuk Russian doctors from different cities from the very beginning offered various experimental methods of treatment.
Photo: Boris KUDRYAVOV
With an insidious disease that affects the brain, the “beautiful nanny” Anastasia Zavorotnyuk has been struggling for four years. Experts call this a real miracle, because the vast majority of these patients die in the first one and a half to two years after diagnosis. Glioblastoma of the brain is the most aggressive form of a malignant tumor, and the success of its treatment largely depends on the jewelry skill of doctors.
The thing is that the world standards, which are applied and in Russia, assume a certain algorithm of actions. First, if possible, an operation is performed to remove the tumor (Zavorotnyuk had this in 2019. – Ed.), Then radiation therapy, and then several courses of chemotherapy. But the regulations for the second line of the disease, when a patient relapses, simply do not exist: the medical art already begins here.
Anastasia Zavorotnyuk Russian doctors from different cities from the very beginning offered various experimental methods of treatment. The family of the actress ultimately chose the scientific development of the EMC clinic: in Moscow, Alexei Krivoshapkin, a well-known neurosurgeon scientist, whom grateful patients nicknamed “Doctor Life”, took part in the rescue of the “beautiful nanny”.
“He performed real man-made miracles and gave Nastya a second life,” Anastasia’s relatives admitted on her birthday in 2021.
So what is the phenomenon of a doctor saving the most seriously ill patients who were predicted to live from a week to a month? First, on the experience of more than 40 years. And secondly, in the miraculous technology that is used in the clinic where Zavorotnyuk was also treated. The method with the complex name “intraoperative balloon electronic brachytherapy”, loosely speaking, is the “burning” of cancer cells with radiation that remained after the removal of the tumor. It is possible that Zavorotnyuk also tested knowledge on herself.
“I’m not going to say anything about Anastasia,” Dr. Krivoshapkin immediately warned KP.RU, but voluntarily agreed to talk about the technique. – At this time, I just spoke with a patient who has been diagnosed with glioblastoma for 12 years. And when I write to patients who feel like completely healthy people, it is always great happiness. But we must understand that everything is very individual: no two glioblastomas are identical. In recent years, we have seriously managed to study these tumors, we begin to understand them better. In 2021, even the classification has changed: some of the phenomena that used to be called glioblastomas today have a different name. One way or another, in the center where I work, the technologies used make it possible to prolong the life of patients for years. We even patented this method. But patients with traditional treatment live much less and their quality of life is much worse.
– Why is this method used only in one clinic? Is it not possible to apply it everywhere in Russia?
– The fact is that we use the latest American equipment, which is not found anywhere else in Russia, and, unfortunately, domestic analogues and consumables are not produced. Even before all the events that are happening now, we try to bring this method to international studies, we even coincide with many clinics. But now it’s all one big question mark.
– And the price of such treatment is high?
– Unfortunately yes. There was talk that we would treat patients according to quotas, but unfortunately this did not happen. However, in Russia this method is cheaper than in the United States, where it is also used, and we in Russia were the first to try it. But in Israel, for example, intraoperative balloon electronic brachytherapy is not yet available.
– Why is the new method of treatment used only in the most severe cases, after a relapse? Isn’t it easier to use from the beginning if the results are so impressive?
– And we cannot use this method for patients with primary glioblastomas, although we think it would be very useful, because it does not require subsequent radiation for a month and a half. But this cannot be done. First, we need to prove in a large international study that it is effective, and only then move on to primary patients. Because there is a standard of treatment that we cannot ignore.
The rehabilitation of cancer patients is no less important than treatment: for example, it was once written that Anastasia Zavorotnyuk was in a medical center in Zhukovka near Moscow, where patients are taught to walk, talk, write , think logically, communicate in society and much more. According to experts, in Russia, rehabilitation was taken seriously about 10 years ago, but from the very beginning. For example, virtual reality is now actively used: in special glasses a person “shoots” his eyes at some objects to develop coordination of movements.
– Yes, rehabilitation today is one of the pillars of medicine, and we cannot do without it, – confirmed doctor Anastasia Zavorotnyuk. – Start immediately after the operation. We have a specialized center in Zhukovka, where a wide range of exercises are performed with patients. This includes motor rehabilitation, speech disorders and disorders of the vestibular apparatus. And we also use virtual reality glasses.
