1/24/2009 8:21:00 PM
New cancer treatment center opens in Chino Valley
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The radiation machine at the newly-opened Northern Arizona Tumor Institute in Chino Valley stands ready and waiting to serve patients with shaped beams that lessen the damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
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Five days a week, Charles Sargent makes the 60-mile roundtrip drive from Paulden to the Northern Arizona Tumor Institute in Prescott for his esophageal cancer treatments.
He's been doing it for the past four weeks.
"It's a long drive down there for a 10-minute procedure," Sargent says.
That's why he's thrilled that the Institute owners have just opened a treatment center in Chino Valley, only eight miles away from Paulden.
"If I have to do another session, it's going to be a godsend," Sargent said.
The new Northern Arizona Tumor Institute in Chino Valley opened on Jan. 15 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by local dignitaries.
Jim Churchill, who lives in Chino Valley, says he'll switch his treatments from Prescott to the Chino location, too.
"It'll be very convenient for me," Churchill said.
Churchill has papillary carcinoma, a form of thyroid cancer that has spread to his vocal chords and lungs.
He's been living with his cancer diagnosis for 10 years, but he hasn't let it stop him. He regularly hikes the Grand Canyon, once even hiking the 23 miles from the north to the south rims in eight hours and 40 minutes.
Despite his endurance, a shorter trip to get his cancer treatments is a welcome change, he said.
Not only is the new treatment center closer for many patients, it has one of the newest radiation therapy machines around.
Called a conformal radiation machine, it allows doctors to shape the radiation beam used to destroy cancer cells to more accurately match the shape of the tumor, explained Vinod Shah and Dhirendra Patel, the doctors who direct the Northern Arizona Tumor Institute's three treatment centers in Prescott Valley, Prescott, and now Chino Valley.
With conformal radiation, a special computer uses imaging scans like those used in CT scans to map the cancer's location in the body in three dimensions. Operators then can shape the beams to match the shape of the cancer. This helps to better protect nearby tissues and the parts of the body in between the radiation beam and the cancer, the doctors explained.
The treatment center also uses intensity-modulated radiation therapy that allows operators to change the strength of the radiation beams in some areas to lessen damage to normal body tissues.
This provides even more control in reducing the radiation reaching normal tissue while getting a higher dose to the tumor.
For more information on the treatment centers call them at 776-1040 or visit their website at www.vantageoncology.com/centers2006/NATI.
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