WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TREAT THE WHOLE PATIENT?
As a pioneer in community-based cancer care, we provide high-quality cancer care and leading-edge technology and therapy options to patients where they live. Our evidence-based care model treats the whole patient, focusing on patient outcomes and significantly improving how cancer care is managed.
From medical oncology, radiation oncology, hematology, surgical offerings, and imaging (X-rays, PET, CT), to laboratory and pharmacy services, patients also have access to other important resources that enhance and facilitate their care including pain management, palliative medicine, nutrition counseling, advance care planning, depression screening, and social services. Financial counselors help patients navigate the ins and outs of insurance coverage, including Medicare and Medicaid.
HOW DO TODAY'S INNOVATIVE CANCER TREATMENTS IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE?
Great strides in cancer treatment, such as radiopharmaceuticals and targeted therapies, provide more treatment options and improve longevity and quality of life for patients.
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Immunotherapy boosts a patient's own immune system to fight cancer at the cellular level. Unlike traditional cancer treatments that target tumor cells, immunotherapy drugs boost the body's defense mechanisms to attack cancer cells, stop or slow their growth, or limit the cancer's ability to spread.
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Pencil-beam scanning and image-guided proton therapy targets cancer cells with extreme precision while minimizing damage to healthy tissue and allowing patients to maintain quality of life during and after treatment.
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Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy galvanizes the body's immune system to fight cancer using the patient's own T cells, which are genetically engineered to recognize specific proteins on tumor cells. CAR-T reeducates the immune system to go after cancer cells and destroy them, allowing for targeted therapy with fewer side effects.
LOOKING AT THE FUTURE OF CANCER CARE, WHAT IS BIOMARKER TESTING AND HOW WILL IT MAKE AN IMPACT?
Cancer biomarkers are genes and proteins on cancer cells that can be tested to learn important details about a person's cancer. Biomark-er testing helps oncologists connect patients to innovations in cancer treatment, increasing the ability of physicians to use targeted therapies, reducing delays in time to recovery, and increasing healthcare efficiency. Biomarkers will increasingly be used to determine a person's risk of future cancer development, find cancer at earlier stages, determine treatment effectiveness, and detect cancer recurrences.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF TAKING PART IN A CLINICAL TRIAL?
Taking part in a clinical trial offers patients a valuable opportunity to help move forward and advance the fight against cancer. Participants have access to leading-edge treatment and are one of the first who experience an outcome that could change the course of treatment for future patients. It is important that diverse groups of patients participate in clinical trials so that new treatments are effective and have acceptable side effects across geographic and ethnic groups. Our robust community-based clinical trials and research program has helped develop more than 100 FDA-approved cancer therapies. At any given time, more than 15 national clinical trials are open throughout the network.
This article originally appeared in D Magazine.