(Submitted by Wood County Hospital)
Precision is key to fighting cancer
The Maurer Family Cancer Care Center at Wood County Hospital now offers radiation treatments so precise, they actually track a patient’s breathing. The center recently acquired Real-time Position Management™(RPM) Respiratory Gating equipment, making it one of a select number of area providers to offer this new technology.
Tracking tumors while you breathe
RPM is a non-invasive, video-based positioning assistant the continuously monitors the position of a patient’s tumor. As the center’s Medical Director Dr. Robert Lavey explains, “Tumors in the chest and abdomen move as the patient breathes. Respiratory Gating permits us to deliver radiation in pulses when the tumor is in the optimal phase of the respiratory cycle.”
Higher doses, fewer side effects
During a patient’s radiation therapy session, RPM turns the radiation beam on and off as the patient breathes to avoid areas that the tumor moves through during treatment. This allows doctors to deliver higher doses of radiation with fewer side effects. It is particularly useful for the imaging and treatment of lung, breast, esophagus, pancreas and stomach cancers.
This RPM technology was funded through donations to the Wood County Hospital Foundation.
The latest immune system therapies
The Maurer Family Cancer Care Center also offers up-to- the-minute advances in immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Immunotherapy uses a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. Wood County Hospital administers immunotherapy and chemotherapy drugs as soon as they are cleared by the FDA, offering patients cutting-edge care close to home.
About Wood County Hospital
Founded in 1951, Wood County Hospital is a private, not-for-profit general acute care facility, licensed for 196 beds, that serves a population of over 72,000 in Wood, Henry, Seneca, Sandusky and Hancock counties in northwest Ohio. Wood County Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.
