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On the technology forefront, Community CancerCare moves the fight to the community.
The past few years have marked a significant gain in new cancer fighting technologies. With a vision to bring every resource available to provide help, hope, and comfort to cancer patients, Community CancerCare has launched an aggressive cancer fighting effort. In the process, we're building the area's premier community cancer treatment program. New treatment options are offering renewed hope and the prospect of better outcomes without ever leaving your community. Our affiliation with the Helen and Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital gives our patients access to teaching hospital technologies and some of the highest credentialed physicians in the region.
PRESS RELEASE
Community CancerCare Receives ACR Accreditation
August 2006
Community CancerCare located in the Phoenix Community Cancer Center, Enfield and the John DeQuattro Community Cancer Center in Manchester has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation by the American College of Radiology (ACR).
ACR accreditation was awarded Community CancerCare based on the achievement of high practice standards including the quality of work being performed by physicians and medical physicists, as well as staff efficiency, quality assessment, improvement activities including peer review and the adequacy of space and equipment available to the practice.
The ACR is a national organization serving more than 32,000 radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and diagnostic/interventional radiologists with programs for focusing on the practice of radiation oncology and medical imaging and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.
The ACR accreditation is rigorous with only 30% of the facilities applying for accreditation succeeding on the first try. Community CancerCare is proud to be accredited after one request.
Why Accreditation
Accreditation by the American college of Radiology (ACR) www.acr.org
demonstrates that a facility is responding to its patients' need and desire for quality care. The ACR-accredited facility certification mark lets patients know that a facility has undergone a rigorous review process and meets nationally accepted standards of care. Accreditation demonstrates a commitment to quality care and patient safety through the use of qualified staff, appropriate equipment, and adherence to quality assurance and safety guidelines.
New Weapon in the Fight Against Cancer - IMRT
Community CancerCare now offers patients Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), a highly sophisticated new technology of radiotherapy. IMRT enables the radiation oncologist to improve radiation targeting of tumors regardless of their size and shape. This improved targeting technique allows the radiation to attack the cancer without damaging nearby healthy tissue and organs.
IMRT is a revolutionary approach to the delivery of radiation," said Dr. Steven Hauser, radiation oncologist. "It (IMRT) is capable of automatically creating and implementing an optimized treatment plan for targeting tumors of almost any size or shape in essentially any anatomical location. I think this technology represents the future of radiation therapy," said Dr. Hauser, who is on staff at Manchester Memorial Hospital and Hartford Hospital.
Conventional radiation therapy uses beams of uniform intensity, which makes it extremely difficult for radiation oncologists to direct the right amount of radiation to the tumor without jeopardizing surrounding tissue. That means, in some cases, the physicians must either stop short of optimally treating the tumor or proceed with the increased risk of negative side effects by damaging healthy organs and tissue that are adjacent to the tumor.
The IMRT addresses that risk by utilizing many pencil-thin beams of varied intensity during the delivery. This technique allows the radiation oncologists to deliver more radiation to the tumor while protecting the surrounding normal tissue.
"IMRT precisely tailors the shape of the radiation beam to the tumor, sparing critical adjacent structures and reducing the risk of complications usually associated with conventional radiotherapy," said Dr. Hauser. Highly trained radiation oncology professionals, along with the radiation oncologist, are involved with the treatment planning and delivery. "Patients treated with IMRT may have a better chance of tumor control and quality of life after therapy," Dr. Hauser added.
Currently, the IMRT is being used to treat selected cancers of the prostate, the head and neck, and breast. The radiation oncology team investigates the best course available for the clinical situation, of which, IMRT maybe an option. In the future, treatment options for various other cancers utilizing the benefits of IMRT will be evaluated as this technology.
Community CancerCare is already engaged in a program that delivers higher than normal doses of radiation to the prostate gland by marking prostate tumors with gold markers. The goal with this program, similar to the IMRT, is to increase the treatment dose to the tumor and decrease the amount of dose or potential damage to the surrounding normal tissue.
Gold Markers Improve Radiation Treatment For Prostate Cancer Patients At Community CancerCare
Marking a prostate cancer tumor with “gold markers” has improved the efficacy of the latest radiation therapy for prostate cancer patients at the Community CancerCare Radiation Therapy centers located in the John DeQuattro Community Cancer Center in Manchester and the Phoenix Community Cancer Center in Enfield.
 “By placing three gold markers into the prostate,” says Tim Boyd, a Community CancerCare and Hartford Hospital radiation oncologist, “we can see precisely where the prostate tumor is each day immediately before the patient is treated, which allows us to be as accurate as possible in developing the radiation treatment.”
Accuracy is always important in radiation treatment. Physicians must protect healthy tissue and organs from radiation that kills all cells, not just cancerous ones. An especially high degree of accuracy in radiation therapy has become even more important as radiation technology has improved. IMRT, intensity modulated radiation therapy, for example, is among the most advanced and accurate now used at the Community CancerCare centers.
With standard radiation therapy, according to Community CancerCare’s radiation oncologist Kenneth Leopold, MD, radiation fields of equal intensity converge from all directions on the tumor. With IMRT, the intensity of each field changes to follow more precisely the shape of the tumor. If the contents of a patient’s bladder or rectum moves the tumor between treatments, or if the patient, and so the tumor, moves even slightly during treatment, the dose to the tumor may be compromised and surrounding healthy tissue in the prostate, bladder and rectum may be damaged.
With the addition of gold seed markers to the therapy, computer software can use the radiation beam itself for alignment and hit the tumor, which is a non-uniform, three-dimensional target, precisely each time.
Three gold markers, each about the size of a grain of rice, are placed into the tumor in the prostate during a 10-minute procedure in the urologist’s office.
Radiation treatment’s side effects have been reduced because of IMRT’s high degree of accuracy, Dr. Leopold says, and in some cases IMRT has allowed increases in radiation dose without increasing side effects. The goal of any cancer treatment is to kill the cancer with the least healthy tissue damage and fewest side effects. Using gold markers may allow physicians to strike this balance even better.
“Prostate cancer patients who undergo gold marker implantation may experience fewer treatment side effects, including bladder and bowel problems,” Dr. Boyd says, “Because the gold markers allow us to be more precise and adjust for any change in position of the prostate internally in the pelvis, we’re treating less normal tissue, like the rectum and the bladder, which may result in reduced side effects.”
The American Cancer Society estimates that 2,900 Connecticut men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007, and 390 of them will die from the disease, but the good news, according to the National Cancer Institute, is that progress in cancer treatment (like the use of gold seed markers), along with progress in prevention and early detection, continues to reduce American’s risk of dying from cancer.
Reiki Therapy
The Reiki Program is up and running at the Phoenix Community Cancer Center. Reiki is an ancient Japanese hands-on relaxation technique that promotes wellness and can help reduce pain, discomfort and nausea. Sessions are available free of charge to patients undergoing treatment. During a Reiki session, a person is seated or lying down, fully clothed. Soft music is played while the Reiki practioner/volunteer places his or her hands on the person's head, shoulders, chest, abdomen, and legs. People often experience a deep sense of peace and often report reduced tension resulting in better sleep and increased energy. At the Phoenix Community Cancer Center, a Reiki room has been set up that creates a very peaceful, warm feeling with soft lighting, a massage table, beautiful pictures on the wall, a running fountain and music. Patients can treat themselves to a session weekly during their treatment and for up to eight weeks following the completion of their treatment.
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