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Monroeville cancer center offers new technology
"In a small town, people assume you have to go somewhere else….That's not the case." Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) technology was recently installed at the Monroeville center. The system, which ultimately has cost the center approximately $3 million, is the latest cancer fighting technology and provides more precise ability to track and adjust tumor movements. The IGRT allows a decrease of the volume of tissue in the body, which is being radiated, with higher doses precisely delivered to the tumor but with less side effects. Hixson described the advances in technology to "going from a shotgun to a rifle without a scope. Now this expertise (IGRT) is the scope." It is an improvement over Intensity- Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), available in Monroeville since 2004, which allowed physicians to aim lower intensity radiation conforming to the shape of the tumor. "The problem is the tumor doesn't always stay where we want it," he said. Through computer software, technicians are able to precisely match up with X-ray film and the computer helps chart a day-today plan for radiation dosage. "You can map the radiation precisely where you want it." Hixson said the more precise aim of the new technology is particularly welcomed when treating tumors around the spinal cord. "It can be truly, at some point, life or death as far as the accuracy," the doctor said. "…In the past, without this kind of accuracy, you did the best you could without damaging the spinal cord. You often had to clip part of the tumor. You just did your best. ….With this (IGRT), you're able to be more aggressive…with less side effects." The new equipment allows area patients to stay closer to home than having to go to Mobile or Pensacola for the six to eightweek radiation treatments. Doctors are often concerned that patients will not complete their treatment because of the travel requirements. "Treatments are not easy," Hixson said. "With breast cancer, you're going to get 36 treatments (seven weeks and one day). With prostate cancer, you're going to get 43 treatments (almost nine weeks). Sometimes people feel bad from their treatments. Some people have had (chemotherapy) before their treatments." With the new IGRT, physicians are able to give complex treatment but in the same time frame or less. Hixson encourages cancer patients who are currently traveling to Mobile to stop by and talk to him in a free consultation. A patient from Grove Hill had recently been able to shift her radiation treatment from Mobile to Monroeville, he said. "…Patients go from very anxious and not sure about what is going on and not sure if people are caring for them, to being reassured (that) someone is on top of it."
For more information, call the Monroeville center at 1-251-575-2697 or toll free at 1-866-970-4222.
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