Press Releases

Mercy Hospital Offers Patient Access To The World’s Most Advanced Cancer Treatments

Port Huron, MI…The American Cancer Society estimates that more than half a million people in the United States are expected to die of cancer each year. There is good news! The five-year related survival rate for all cancer diagnosed between 1995 and 2000 is 64 percent, up from 50 percent in 1974-1976. The American Cancer Society reports that this is due in part to progress in early detection and improved new treatments.

Now Mercy Hospital offers access to much improved chances for cure through the installation of a software system capable of delivering Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), the most precise and sophisticated treatment in the world. Clinicians at the Mercy Regional Cancer Center will begin using the new SmartBeam IMRT system in April 2007 to treat patients with prostate, breast, hand and neck, lung, pancreatic, and other cancers where precisely placed beams can be focused to carefully target tumor cells without harming surrounding healthy tissue.

Radiation therapy is used today in more than half of all cancer treatments due to its unique clinical advantages, and it is becoming steadily more effective with new technologies that permit ultra-precise dose delivery. The Mercy Regional Cancer Center is equipped with state-of-the-art capabilities that highly trained medical staff will use for treating cancer with laser-like precision. Mercy now has the potential to substantially improve both patient comfort and cure rates by protecting healthy tissue while delivering more powerful doses to the tumor.

Enhancing the dose concentrations to the tumor gives clinicians a much greater chance of completely eradicating the tumor, rather than simply causing a temporary regression. Cancer cells are fast replicating by nature, so any damage to the genetic structure of these cells by radiation is incredibly powerful. In addition, increased optimization enables clinicians to use radiation to treat areas that would have been considered too risky just a few years ago.

The new IMRT technique has already contributed to substantially improve clinical outcomes in prostate cancer, according to studies in the Journal of Radiotherapy and Oncology and the International Journal of Radiotherapy and Oncology.

A key element is Mercy’s medical linear accelerator. This machine stands approximately nine feet tall by nearly 15 feet long and weighs about 18,700 pounds. It generates high energy X-rays by using microwave energy to accelerate electrons to nearly the speed of light. As the electrons reach maximum speed, they collide with a metal target to release photons (or X-rays). The accelerator rotates around the patient to deliver the radiation treatments from nearly any angle.

Mercy’s linear accelerator is outfitted with an important accessory called a multi-leaf collimator. This device, which has computer-controlled mechanical “leaves” or “fingers,” is used to shape the beam of radiation so that it conforms to the three-dimensional shape of the tumor.

The Mercy Regional Cancer Center’s radiation therapy department is also equipped with special software that makes it possible for clinicians to plan, simulate, and deliver IMRT and other kinds of ultra-precise cancer care.

To launch the new system, the Mercy Regional Cancer Center will focus treatment on prostate cancer patients. “We have begun treating prostate cancer patients with the new technology and to-date it has been very successful,” comments Kanu Dalal, MD, Board-Certified Radiation Oncologist, who added that Mercy will “provide this advanced treatment to additional cancer patients in the coming months.”

To learn more about IMRT services available through the Mercy Regional Cancer Center and prostate cancer education, the community is invited to a special IMRT Open House Celebration, planned for Tuesday, June 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. Educational presentations, tours and refreshments are planned. Look for more details including registration information in the near future.

Mercy Regional Cancer Center was recently named best in cancer care by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons, upon recertification for three-years as a Community Hospital Cancer Program [2005].

To find out more about the extensive cancer care programs and services provided through the Mercy Regional Cancer Center, visit Mercy Hospital on-line at www.mercyporthuron.com; or visit the American Cancer Society’s website at: www.cancer.org.