MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- El Camino Hospital’s new Center for Advanced Radiotherapy and Cyberknife Radiosurgery showcases the tremendous technological advances in radiation therapy achieved over the past three decades. Its focus on delivering high precision, targeted radiation therapies for breast, prostate, gynecologic and endorectal cancers is designed to spare healthy tissue, reduce side effects, and often cut treatment time.
An example is five-day HDR brachytherapy for breast cancer, which delivers radiation direct to a tumor site inside the body. Two out of three breast cancer patients are suitable for the treatment, which minimizes damage to healthy tissue and promotes more rapid recovery. El Camino Hospital was the first in Northern California with the latest technology and currently serves the highest regional volume of HDR brachytherapy patients. Since the arrival 12 months ago of Dr. Rakesh Patel, an internationally renowned brachytherapy pioneer and 2010 president of the American Brachytherapy Society, patients have come from as far away as Pismo Beach, Sonora, and Turlock.
For Los Altos Hills artist Nancie Crowley, diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2009, the availability of HDR brachytherapy meant that instead of six weeks, she could be done with treatment in less than a week.
“Putting my life on hold for nearly two months—with the prospect of even more down time for recovery—was not an option I even wanted to consider,” said Crowley. “With 10-year outcomes in early stage patients comparable to six week treatments, the choice was simple.”
“In nearly all cases, HDR brachytherapy reduces treatment time, and results in fewer side effects—with equivalent or better outcomes,” said Dr. Patel. “This option is particularly important to working women, mothers, elderly patients and those living far from a radiation treatment center. The key is careful patient selection and a strong multi-disciplinary approach.”
Of about 2200 cancer centers in the U.S., roughly 600 currently have HDR brachytherapy; even fewer having the expertise to apply it to breast cancer treatment. El Camino Hospital’s capabilities are so exceptional that Netherlands-based Nucletron selected it as the first western U.S. Nucletron International Training and Reference Center for advanced 3D HDR brachytherapy.
The hospital’s new radiology center also offers Cyberknife radiosurgery, a non-invasive alternative to surgery that externally delivers precisely targeted high dose radiation to treat cancerous and non-cancerous tumors that are surgically complex or inoperable. Only about 200 centers worldwide have this capability.
Dr. Shyamali Singhal, medical director of the Cancer Center at El Camino Hospital, said, “No one else in the Silicon Valley had put the full range of treatment options together with prevention, diagnostic, therapeutic and patient support programs. We felt our community needed to be better-served.”
CONTACT:
El Camino Hospital
Hatti Hamlin, 925-872-4328
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America California
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Health Biotechnology Hospitals Oncology Radiology General Health
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