Archive for the ‘Radiation’ Category
Answers To Radiation Safety Concerns
I am sure that many of you have been following with interest and some concern the articles related to radiation safety. Many of the safety concerns have centered on stereotactic radiosurgery in which excessive doses were administered. In other situations, the wrong part of the body had been treated.
Please rest assured that the Department of Radiation Oncology at Holy Cross Hospital takes this information very seriously. Many of the issues mentioned in the recent articles could have been avoided by simply listening to the patients and reviewing the treatment plans.
At the Bienes Cancer Center and Holy Cross Hospital, we are accredited and surveyed by a number of nationally recognized bodies. These include but are not limited to the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer, the American Colleges of Pathology and Radiology and others. Each of these surveys and accreditations mandate that we meet specific patient safety guidelines and we do quite well every time an outside surveyor reviews us.
You can help to insure that your safety is protected by being an informed consumer. Make sure that you only get care at accredited organizations, make sure that their licensures, training and competencies are up to date and ask what they do daily to keep you safe. We would welcome any and all of the questions – any provider with your best interest in mind would feel the same.
Cancer Research & Treatment FREE Education Program
Cancer patients and survivors, their families, cancer support groups and the public are invited to attend UPDATE 2010: Breast, Lung and Colorectal Cancer Research and Treatment featuring presentations, in non-technical language, by a panel of distinguished cancer experts from Holy Cross Hospital and the Michael and Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center. The event will begin with a complimentary light continental breakfast followed by presentations by the speakers, and a question-answer session with the panelists.
Breast Cancer –Screening and Diagnosis: What Is New and What Is Right?
Joseph Casey, M.D., Breast Surgical Oncologist
New Developments in Breast Cancer Surgery and Breast Reconstruction
Marnie Kaplan, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Breast Surgical Oncologist
What Role Does Chemotherapy Play in Breast Cancer Treatment?
Ena Segota, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Medical Oncologist/Hematologist
Colorectal Cancer Screening – How Important Is It?
Donald Brust, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Gastroenterologist
Surgical Intervention For Colon Cancer: Open Surgery Vs Laparoscopic Surgery
Elie Schochet, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Colorectal Surgeon
New Radiation Oncology Advances For Treating Cancer
Lav Goyal, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Radiation Oncologist
Lung Cancer – What is State of the Art Care?
Martin Gutierrez, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Medical Oncologist/Hematologist
Developing New Cancer Drugs and Clinical Trials for Lung Cancer
Martin Gutierrez, M.D., Holy Cross Hospital, Medical Oncologist/Hematologist
Carol Brudenell, RN, AOCN, Holy Cross Hospital, Research Manager
Q&A Panel
Saturday, March 27, 2010 • 8:30 am – 12:30 pm
Holy Cross Hospital
4725 North Federal Highway
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33308
Sister Innocent Conference Center
This program is jointly sponsored by Holy Cross Hospital’s Michael and Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Syncure Cancer Research Foundation as a public service for cancer patients and their families.
Admission to the program is FREE with advanced registration. Please register early; seating is limited!
To register or for additional information, please contact Holy Cross Hospital:
Toll-Free: 800-903-9702 / Web Address: www.holy-cross.com
2009 Recap
How quickly this year has passed! It is hard for us to believe that this is the last blog post for our first year on the blogging circuit! We have enjoyed bringing this new venue of information and communication to you – our cancer center patients and interested community – and we hope that you have found it to be valuable too!.
It has been quite a busy and productive year for us at Holy Cross and the Bienes Cancer Center. We have continued to grow – both in terms of patient volume and size of professional staff. During 2009 we added new subspecialties and sub-specialists to our team including colorectal surgeons – Drs. Lescher, Basu and Schochet and added a new Hematologist/Oncologist Dr. David Drew who joined us in November from the National Cancer Institute. We added new technologies in our radiation oncology department including a new ultrasound based tumor localization system and a brand new linear accelerator with IGRT (Image-guided radiation therapy) and stereotactic radiosurgery capabilities. There is no cancer center in South Florida that has more technology than we do now! And we have maintained our high touch service along with the spirituality and faith based approach that we do with everything at Holy Cross. We continued to develop our disease specific focus for our physicians so that we have dedicated teams of physicians now who focus their practices on breast cancer, prostate cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, lung cancers and colorectal cancers. This specialization is allowing us to be the true leaders in our field that patients deserve and need.
Finally we have significantly expanded our clinical research program – opening the first community hospital based phase 1 clinical trials for cancer in South Florida. We are truly excited to be able to offer these new options to patients who have exhausted all other treatments.
Thank you for participating with us on our journey. 2010 promises to be even more exciting!
Technologic Advances at Holy Cross Hospital
We are proud to announce a brand new addition to The Department of Radiation Oncology at Holy Cross Hospital…..an Elekta Synergy® machine.
The Elekta Synergy® is the first advanced multi-functional linear accelerator with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). The Synergy® can obtain a CT scan to confirm optimal patient position prior to each treatment. This allows your physician at Holy Cross Hospital to achieve an unprecedented ability to confirm and adjust the patient’s position in order to ensure that the patient is in the exact correct position before each treatment. This results in an unmatched ability to deliver dose to the tumor while avoiding radiation to normal adjacent tissues. It helps bridge the gap to two of the biggest problems of the past: internal organ motion and errors in patient set-up.
The Synergy® incorporates cone beam CT scanner in the treatment process. Cone beam CT creates three-dimensional axial CT slices of a patient’s tumor, enabling therapists and doctors to compare these images with initial treatment planning images and make the appropriate adjustment prior to treatment. This leads to a more highly customized radiation treatment.
In cone beam, the CT scanner is attached to a radiation delivery machine. Prior to the actual treatment, a 3-dimensional CT scan image is obtained. This is compared to the conventional CT scan that was used for planning the patient’s radiation treatment. If there are any differences in the patient’s current position, this is corrected before treatment is actually given. This whole process only takes less than three minutes!!
Also coming soon to Holy Cross Hospital…Stereotactic RADIOSURGERY. In our next blog, I’ll discuss why many experts prefer Radiosurgery with Elekta Synergy® over Cyberknife®.
About the Center
The Michael & Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is the Cancer Care Leader in Broward County. Dedicated to providing patients with precise diagnosis, the latest and most advanced treatment and aftercare options, we offer a multidisciplinary approach to care, a compassionate and spiritual healing environment, and an affiliation with the National Cancer Institute. We are also working together with Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center to provide South Florida residents with rapid access to specialized cancer care and genetics counseling.
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