Carolina Regional Cancer Center Receives Affirmation from DHEC for a Con to Add Tomotherapy Hi-Art® System
Carolina Regional Cancer Center (CRCC) MUSC Hollings Cancer Center is proud to announce that DHEC has determined a Certificate of Need should be issued to CRCC for the expansion of its existing megavoltage therapy services to include the purchase and installation of a TomoTherapy Hi-ART® System linear accelerator.
Myrtle Beach, SC (PRWEB) September 23, 2006
Carolina Regional Cancer Center (CRCC) MUSC Hollings Cancer Center is proud to announce that DHEC has determined a Certificate of Need should be issued to CRCC for the expansion of its existing megavoltage therapy services to include the purchase and installation of a TomoTherapy Hi-ART® System linear accelerator.
“The TomoTherapy Hi-ART® system is an evolution of Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), using a unique technique unavailable in any other system currently on the market,” said Dr. Todd Williams. “TomoTherapy takes the fundamental concept of IMRT to the next level of radiation treatment capabilities, known as Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT).”
“The treatment couch moves the patient through the treatment beam which is continuously re-shaped by the multi-leaf collimator with the gantry rotating 360 degrees,” said Dr. Paul Goetowski. “This method allows for tremendously greater precision in the dose distribution throughout the tumor and allows for numerous areas to be treated in multiple sites in the body during a single treatment instead of requiring multiple individual treatment fields. In addition, the System incorporates an integral Megavoltage CT subsystem which allows for simulation, treatment and real-time adaptation of the therapy based on frequent scan verification of tumor movement, shrinkage or shifts in normal structure position.”
“TomoTherapy will complement our existing state of the art treatment technologies,” said Dr. Bass. “CRCC has had a long history of bringing the latest treatment technologies to our area such as 3-D beginning in 1997 and IMRT in 2002. TomoTherapy is a great technology platform that is only being enhanced with time. Just this summer TomoTherapy added true Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART). This allows the physician the ability to adjust the patient’s treatment plan to account for subtle changes in patient anatomy, as well as tumor size and location, that can have a significant impact on the delivered dose. This results in more normal tissue being spared which leads to faster recoveries and less side affects.”
“We would like to thank the DHEC staff for their time and diligent efforts to determine which applicant would best serve the residents of Horry, Georgetown and Williamsburg Counties and which applicant best met the 2004-2005 South Carolina Health Plan,” said Dr. Bass. “We want to assure DHEC and area residents that we take the trust placed in us very seriously and we will begin implementing our planned addition immediately upon the CON being issued. We will continue to enhance the treatment capabilities of CRCC to better serve our patients. Caring for our patients is what this is all about.”
“CRCC began planning this expansion over two years ago,” said Collins Wakefield, Chief Financial Officer. “The expansion will include a building addition of over 5,000 square feet and additional parking. The initial CON application was filed with DHEC in September 2005. The CON application is essentially a complete business plan that must demonstrate compliance with the State Health Plan and establish that a need exists for the proposed service. We hope the other applicants will respect the decision of the DHEC staff and not appeal the decision.”
“The addition of the TomoTherapy unit will not only expand our treatment capabilities but will also allow us to better serve our patients with the added convenience of additional treatment times,” said Patricia Price, Director of Operations. “We look forward to adding this new technology for the benefit of area patients.”
CRCC and MUSC Hollings Cancer Center are continuing their joint efforts to broaden the local availability of state-of-the-art cancer treatments.
About Carolina Regional Cancer Center
Carolina Regional Cancer Center is a health care facility that provides comprehensive radiotherapeutic services and treatments. The Center has been providing high quality cancer care for over twenty-six years. The state of the art center is located at 4708 Oleander Drive, Myrtle Beach, S. C. It is staffed by four physicians; R. Steve Bass, MD, Medical Director and past chief resident at the Medical University of South Carolina; Todd Williams, MD, a clinical assistant professor of radiation oncology at MUSC; Paul G. Goetowski, MD, associate clinical professor at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and Stephen F. Andrews, D. O., a recent graduate from the prestigious Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Dr. Bass also serves on the Hollings Cancer Citizens’ Advisory Board. For additional information regarding CRCC, please see our website www. CRCCmd. com.
About the Hollings Cancer Center
Hollings offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques and has multidisciplinary clinics that involve surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and many other specialists seeing patients simultaneously under one roof. Multidisciplinary care is provided in disease specific clinics such as thoracic, breast, head & neck, genitourinary, gastrointestinal, hematologic, neuro, and pediatric cancers. In 2004 the HCC diagnosed and/or treated more than 1,947 new cancer patients, the largest cancer care provider in the state.
The Hollings Cancer Center is the largest academic-based cancer program in South Carolina. The Hollings Cancer Center is currently funded as a developing National Cancer Institute designated cancer center and has more than $27M in cancer research funding. More than 1,000 people are currently participating on a cancer clinical trial at Hollings.
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