Radiation Therapy: Comprehensive Cancer Treatment Close to Home

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer, you may already know about the benefits of radiation therapy. Radiation therapy, which is used to destroy cancer cells, is an effective treatment for many cancer patients—and it’s available close to home at Oncologics, Inc. in Laurel.

Advanced, 3-D Radiation Therapy Available

Recently, renovations began on the radiation therapy facility to provide patients with more highly advanced treatment, planning and radiation services. The new facility, scheduled to be completed in November 2006, will offer state-ofthe- art intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). IMRT delivers radiation to tumors with greater accuracy than conventional radiation treatment, sparing more of the surrounding healthy tissue and potentially resulting in fewer side effects for patients. The therapy is precisely planned with computer-generated, three-dimensional images from computed tomography (CT) scans.

“Having sophisticated radiation services close to home really benefits patients,” says Cameron Pimperl, MD, a radiation oncologist at Oncologics, Inc. “It can take six weeks or more of daily therapy to complete treatment, and repeated trips to a facility far away can really be grueling.”

Cancer Care Always Collaborative

At South Central Regional Medical Center, a multidisciplinary team of physicians meets regularly to discuss the best treatment options for cancer patients. Radiation may be used alone to fight many forms of cancer. Or, it may be used with other treatments, such as surgery and chemotherapy.

“Because cancer care is always collaborative at South Central, our cancer patients can be confident that the whole range of possibilities will be considered,” Dr. Pimperl says.

Some forms of cancer, like earlystage vocal cord cancer and some early forms of cervical cancer, have very high cure rates with radiation as the only therapy. “There are many examples where the cure rates with radiation therapy are greater than 90%,” says Dr. Pimperl. “These results are at least as good as surgical removal and sometimes better.”