Lewistown Hospital Cancer Center
By: Charlotte Ames
Updated: April 14, 2010
To find some of the latest cancer treatments, you'd expect to have to go to a large city, but that's not always the case. A hospital in our region now offers advanced radiation technology for breast, colon, prostate and other common and not-so-common cancers.
A few months ago, Lewistown Hospital began treating patients its new linear accelerator. Here's how Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Bernard Rogers describes it, "it's much more precise it's like having a Ferrari when you moved up from a Cadillac to a Ferrari."
The machine rotates around the patient to deliver radiation from nearly any angle, hitting cancerous spots more heavily, while avoiding nearby healthy tissue.
That means fewer side effects for patients.
Other newer technology at Lewistown Hospital's Cancer Center includes Mammosite equipment for the treatment of early stage breast cancer.
It radiates only the tumor site through a catheter that's placed when a woman's tumor is removed. Mammosite reduces radiation time from six weeks to one week.
For more information on cancer reatment at Lewistown Hospital, go here.
