Cancer Care Center
A Patient Guide to the Cancer Care Center
A diagnosis of cancer is a frightening experience for a patient and family alike. It is a time of concern and confusion beginning with the decision of where to go for treatment.
Effective cancer care is a team effort involving the patient, his/her physician, diagnosticians, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons, rehabilitation therapists, nutritionists, and pastoral care counselors. Cancer can be most effectively treated at a facility offering the expertise of all of those specialists . . . an institution like The Cancer Care Center at Battle Creek Health System.
A Continuing Commitment
Our commitment to patient care extends to an active involvement in national cancer care research, too. Working with the National Cancer Institute, The Cancer Care Center has been a major research contributor for over a decade. We are affiliated with major research centers including Southwest Oncology Group (the largest in America), National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, Grand Rapids Clinical Oncology Program (1 of 50 sponsored by the National Cancer Institute), and M.D. Anderson Hospital of the University of Texas. With more than 80 cancer research studies currently in progress, the long-term advantage to area cancer patients is clear. As advances in cancer treatment are developed, we are among the first to learn about them. And our patients are among the first to benefit. Our work is fighting cancer and our concern is for our patients who have cancer. We are proud of our reputation of being a cancer care center large enough to offer first-class cancer treatment and small enough to deeply care for each cancer patient and the people closest to them.
What You Need to Know About Cancer
Cancer is a cellular disease affecting millions of people every year. And it is greatly feared for good reason: anyone can get it. There is promising news about cancer treatment, though. Today, more than half of all cancer cases are being cured when the cancer is detected early and when the person having cancer has access to a cancer care center offering a broad range of effective cancer fighting treatments. The Cancer Care Center at Battle Creek Health System is such a place.
Risk Assessment
What is your family's health history? If you or your family meet one or more of the following criteria, you many want to consider obtaining more information on genetic counseling and testing which is available at The Cancer Care Center.
Multiple relatives on the same side of the family with the same types of cancer.
Cancer that occurs at a young age (under age 50).
Rare cancers (male breast, lung in a non-smoker)
A known predisposition gene.
Concern or anxiety about personal or family cancer risk.
What is Cancer?
When your body is working properly, it regularly produces new cells to replace old or damaged ones. As if magic was involved, your body seems to know which cells need replacing and produces only as many as are needed. But when cancer strikes, the process changes and the body begins producing too many new cells. These new cancer cells compete with normal cells for food and space inside the body. The result is the creation of too much tissue, which makes a lump or mass called a tumor. Tumors can be benign (meaning production of new cancer cells has stopped) or malignant (meaning cancer cells are continuing to grow and spread throughout the body).
We are learning more about how these abnormal cellular episodes happen. For example, when people are regularly exposed to cancer-causing agents like viral infections, too much sun, asbestos, chemicals in the air, diet and vitamin deficiencies, and tobacco smoke, their risk of getting cancer increases.
Early Detection is Everything
Discovering cancer early in its development is critical and here is why. When cancer is unchecked, it spreads (metastasizes) rapidly throughout the body. At the beginning, though, cancer cells tend to remain in the organ where they originated. So when discovered before they begin to spread, cancer cells are much easier to control. That is why knowing the seven early warning signs of cancer and getting regular checkups from your physician are the important keys to remaining healthy.
Today, in the more fortunate communities like ours, there are centers for cancer care with highly qualified cancer care physicians who specialize in the early detection of cancer and treating it successfully.
Procedures they use to check for cancer include mammography, Pap smears, a variety of ‘oscopies,’ ultrasound, X-ray, and CT, PET, and MRI scans. When cancer is suspected, a biopsy is performed. The biopsy, usually an outpatient surgical procedure, is where a small sample of tissue is removed for microscopic examination.
Today, the most effective cancer treatments are chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and post-treatment supportive therapies. And the patient’s prospects are improving when treatment can be provided by a cancer facility equipped to provide them all like The Cancer Care Center at Battle Creek Health System.
Seven Red Flags - The Early Warning Signs of Cancer
1. Persistent hoarseness, cough, or difficulty swallowing
2. Noticeable changes in warts, moles, or birthmarks
3. Loss of appetite or continual indigestion
4. Change in bowel or bladder habits
5. Unusual bleeding or discharges
6. A sore that does not heal
7. Any lump or thickening
Medical Oncology
In many cancer patients, chemotherapy will be selected as the primary treatment. This procedure involves oral or intravenous administration of drugs intended to kill cancer cells and halt the course of the disease.
Chemotherapy has been effective in increasing the lifetime of many patients. Sometimes several drugs are administered at the same time to increase the effectiveness of this therapy. Many times, chemotherapy is used with other cancer therapies in a patient’s treatment plan.
When chemotherapy is indicated, the patient’s first visit to The Cancer Care Center’s Medical Oncology department is for consultation. After reviewing patient records and test results, our Medical Oncologists meet with each cancer patient and his/her family. The chemotherapy process is reviewed and possible side effects are discussed. This also the time when additional tests, if necessary, are ordered.
When a patient’s cancer treatment plan is finalized, he/she is scheduled for treatment in a comfortable and friendly environment. Accompanied by an expert medical team, the patient’s treatments begin.
A Cancer Care Center patient is never alone. Each month, more than 500 cancer patients receive chemotherapeutic treatment, usually in our state-of-the-art treatment room where they can visit with other patients and share common experience.
Radiation Oncology
Often the cancer care team decides that a cancer patient’s therapy will include radiation treatment. Radiation is a process where cancer is treated by using special tools, which focus invisible energy at diseased tissue. In high intensities, this radiation energy penetrates deeply into tissue to painlessly destroy cancer cells.
Our team includes radiation oncologists, certified medical physicists, technologists, radiation therapy nurses and support personnel like dieticians and social workers - people who care for and about our patients.
A patient’s first visit to The Cancer Care Center’s Radiation Oncology department is for consultation. Records and test results are reviewed and a radiation oncologist discusses the case with the patient and family answering questions they may have. The physician also describes the treatment process and reviews possible side effects. This is the time additional tests will be ordered if necessary.
Prior to actual radiation treatment, cancer patients are placed in a simulator that simulates the actual treatment set up. This simulator is designed to help our team make preparations for effective treatment. The simulator also provides vital patient information that is then entered into a treatment-planning computer for final treatment calculation.
After the most effective course of radiation therapy planning has been determined, the patient returns to our radiation oncology center. Here in a comfortable environment, with specially trained professionals who care, the patient receives his/her radiation treatments. Most patients will have external beam radiation therapy. Here, the patient lies quietly on a treatment table while the technologist aims the radiation beam from several different points to attack the tumor from multiple angles. Each treatment is painless and only lasts a few minutes.
While receiving their course of radiation treatment, most patients are able to maintain their regular daily activities.
Surgery
When a cancer is discovered, The Cancer Care Center team of specialists, together with the patient’s doctor, evaluate the case and determine the most effective treatment plan. For some types and stages of cancer, surgery is the primary treatment.
The Cancer Care Center surgical team’s objective is removal of the tumor to eliminate or reduce the amount of cancerous tissue in the body.
The patient is admitted to The Cancer Care Center and, in a friendly and caring environment, supported by expert surgeons, anesthesiologists, and surgical nurses, the surgery is performed.
The type of surgery required determines each patient’s length of stay. For some cancer surgeries, patients are admitted on an in-patient basis meaning that their visit will last longer than a day. Other patients may be hospitalized for a single day and others may have their surgery - a biopsy, for example - performed on an outpatient basis. With all Cancer Care Center surgeries, patients are surrounded by a top quality medical staff totally committed to each patient’s successful recovery.
Patient Support Services
Although the success of cancer treatment is usually measured by the number of surviving patients, at The Cancer Care Center at Battle Creek Health System we believe that quality of life for the survivors is equally important. For most cancer patients, rehabilitation is a continuing process after therapy, and we recognize that support services are an essential part of the recover process.
That is why we surround our Cancer Care Center patients and their families with team members who are skilled and caring professionals. They understand cancer treatment stresses and know how to help patients deal with them. In addition to emotional counseling and pastoral services, our team provides support groups like LIFEGUARD, a forum for cancer patients and significant others to exchange shared experiences and views; the LIFEGUARD program is free.
We also provide meeting space to the "One Day at a Time" breast cancer support group that meets on the last Thursday of every month.
Our team also includes nutritionists who are available to evaluate a patient’s dietary requirements and develop appropriate meal plans, financial counselors to help patients and families through the complexities of medical care costs, and Cancer Care Center staff who are able to provide productive connections between the patient and ancillary community cancer care resources.
Finally, we have a massage therapist available to all patients for limited massage services to help during treatment.
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