RADIATION ONCOLOGY SERVICES

J. Arturo Castro, MD Radiation Oncology

Cancer continues to be the second leading cause of death in the United States. As costs and managed care continues to impact the delivery of cancer therapies, the community setting increasingly emerges as the focal point of care. Approximately 60% of all cancer patients in the United States receive radiation therapy each year as a definitive therapy, for palliation, or as an adjunct to surgery or chemotherapy.

Management of the patient with cancer is complex and requires close integration of basic concepts and sophisticated technology to evaluate and stage the tumor, and by using various modalities, to obtain the best therapeutic results. Because there is seldom a second chance to affect a cure, the choice of initial treatment must be the correct one.

The radiation oncology department at the Del Sol Regional Oncology Center is committed and strives to provide quality health care to the El Paso Community. The center offers state-of-the-art radiation therapy that focuses on curative and palliative treatments for cancer patients. It is equipped with a Philips dual-energy linear accelerator with photon and electron capabilities, a Philips simulator, and 3-D ADAC conformal treatment planning system. With this type of planning capability, we are able to administer a larger dose of radiation to target the tumor, while sparing the healthy, critical tissues around the tumor, thereby decreasing the possible side effects.

The radiation oncology center is staffed with a selective group of health professionals who are instrumental in the implementation of a comprehensive cancer program. This program provides courteous customer service, patient education, and specialized care for individual needs. We continuously listen to the expectation of our patients and we focus on exceeding those expectations at every opportunity.

On June 3, 2002 Del Sol Medical Center was granted a three-year accreditation as a "Community Hospital Cancer Program" by the American College of Surgeons.

During the course of 2002, a series of decisive measures by the administration has allocated resources to the cancer program to deliver valued and unprecedented services by:

• Submitting plans to add a new Varian linear accelerator.
• Implementation of a PET scanner that is already in place and functional, assisting in redefining and staging of a variety of tumors.
• Establishing an educational cancer resource center (The Green House,) opening early fall of 2002. This center will be available to patients, family members and others interested in the latest information regarding cancer statistics, treatment options, complementary therapy and other types of related cancer information.
• Sponsoring multiple cancer support groups that offer the community of El Paso, on a monthly basis, educative and instructive lectures.
• The hiring of an additional staff physicist to the DSROC staff to assist with our increasing patient load.

In light of the current environment, the effectiveness of our well-delineated network has helped to create new relationships that strengthen our position in the managed care market.

The fitness of our program is determined by many factors. Of the many ways to measure success, here in our program the difference is, how strong and flexible is our organization, how deep is our relationship with our patients, associates, as well as the long-term results of our efforts. By utilizing these measures, we are in the strongest possible position to compete effectively with the current healthcare industry.

We continually strive to improve our services and capabilities, and we remain committed at Del Sol Regional Oncology to ensure patient satisfaction. Our constant efforts have been acknowledged by our positive outcomes and excellent survey results.