Pages - Treatment and Support

Patient Navigator - Navigators help patients make informed medical decisions and assist the patient with scheduling appropriate doctors' appointments and tests. Navigators provide tips on dealing with chemotherapy, make sure patients stay on track with their treatment plan and offer emotional support.

Depending on the hospital, navigators might be nurses, social workers or other staffers certified through programs that include training in care coordination, motivational interviewing skills, and cultural sensitivity. Navigators can help you get your questions answered. Navigators give patients education on their cancer treatment options available to them. Navigators connect patients to local resources and support, such as help with financial issues, obtaining a translator for non English speaking patients, or transportation to your appointments. Cancer patients can get lost floating around in the system and they need someone knowledgeable to help anchor them.

While advances in cancer treatment have helped save millions of lives over the last three decades, patients now often face far more complex treatment decisions and follow-up options than they did in the past. Efforts by hospitals to make the system clearer and to increase coordination among doctors haven't always kept up with the changes, and patient navigation is seen as one possible solution to the problem.

Hospitals around the country have been adding patient-navigation services in recent years, helped by funding from governments and private groups. The Commission on Cancer, part of the American College of Surgeons, issued new standards this year that will require cancer centers to offer patient-navigation services by 2015 to meet accreditation requirements.

What is radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy, or radiotherapy, is the treatment of cancer and other diseases using ionizing radiation. This radiation can be delivered externally or internally.

How does radiation work?
Radiation therapy works by damaging the DNA in the cancer cell, thereby disabling the cancer cell from reproducing and growing. The cancer cells then die and the cancer shrinks.

3-D External Beam Radiation Therapy

External Beam Radiation Therapy is the most commonly used form of radiation treatment, which delivers ionizing radiation to destroy cancer cells. The radiation "beam" passes through the skin to the target tissue (tumor). The radiation is directed to the tumor area, protecting non-diseased organs.

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is one of the most technologically advanced treatment methods available. IMRT allows very precise external beam radiotherapy treatments. Rather than having a single large radiation beam pass through the body, with IMRT the radiation is effectively broken up into thousands of thin radiation beams, providing accuracy so that all beams intersect on the cancer, which minimizes harm to surrounding tissues.

Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)

Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) is a new technology designed to improve the precision and effectiveness of cancer treatments by giving physicians the ability to target and track tumors more accurately. One of the challenges encountered when radiation is delivered to a tumor is that the tumor can move based on the patient's day to day position on the treatment table, as well as secondary to breathing. IGRT allows the physician to better deliver the radiation dose directly to the cancer by using a variety of automated tracking systems. IGRT is conformal radiation treatment guided by imaging equipment, such as CT, ultrasound or stereoscopic X-rays, taken in the treatment room just before the patient is given the radiation treatment. Physicians can now obtain daily high-resolution imagery to pinpoint tumor sites, adjust patient positioning when necessary, and complete a treatment, all within the standard treatment time period while minimizing the incidence of side effects.

Clinical Trials

KCH participates in a wide range of clinical trials, allowing access to the most advanced treatment options for cancer patients in the greater Warsaw community. KCH partners with the following research groups in order to deliver the most state of the art treatments possible: Hoosier Oncology Group, Southwest Oncology Group, Children’s Oncology Group, CALGB Cancer and Leukemia Group, and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project.

Chemotherapy/Medical Oncology

At KCH Medical Oncology and Hematology, DR M Goksel specializes in hematology (treatment of blood disorders) and oncology (treatment of cancer). Dr Goksel provides individualized treatment plans for each of our patients based on the very latest in cancer and blood disorder research. Dr Goksel remains in the forefront of his field through ongoing research, teaching, and continuing medical education.

Medical oncology is a subspecialty of internal medicine that specializes in the treatment of cancer with chemotherapy, biologic therapy or hormonal treatment. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs (via intravenous injections, oral medications, topical treatments, and a number of other deliveries) to treat cancer. These anti-cancer drugs destroy cancer cells by stopping them from growing or multiplying at one or more points in their life cycle. Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment acting on the entire body as it travels through the bloodstream.

KCH cancer center uses the latest and greatest Varian Eclipse treatment planning software, often incorporating multimodality imaging to more accurately delineate target volumes, such as MRI and CT/PET.

Diagnostic Imaging Services

Medical developments of the past 1,000 years—ranking with such milestones as the discovery of anesthesia and the discovery of antibiotics. The reason: the remarkable power of medical imaging in providing physicians with sight— and insight—about human disease and physiology. This is especially important for cancer, where researchers and physicians are now able to see not just inside the body, but deep within the chaos of cancer cells. Medical imaging is a vital component of the nation’s war on cancer. In this role, imaging is used to:

Screen, diagnose, and stage cancer;
Guide cancer treatments;
Determine if a treatment is working;
Monitor cancer recurrence; and
Facilitate medical research, particularly in such critical areas as drug discovery and therapeutic innovation to improve patient care.

Advanced diagnostic imaging services are available on the hospital campus. The cancer care team utilizes these studies to diagnose and plan appropriate treatment and to evaluate response to treatment.