TEMPLE: PHILANTHROPIC OPPORTUNITY
Rising to the challenge
Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center in Temple expands to meet growing demand.
xperts estimate that one in three cancer is simply getting older,” says of radiation with pinpoint accuracy to
people will be diagnosed with Niloyjyoti Deb, MD, Chair and Medical target and treat tumors while sparing
cancer during their lifetime. In Director for the Radiation Oncology surrounding healthy tissue.
Some tumors, such as those on the
fact, someone in the US is diagnosed with Department at Baylor Scott & White cancer every 30 seconds. However, there Medical Center - Temple. “People are lungs or breasts, can be difficult to target
is good news. According to the American living longer, and a large portion of our with radiation because of their natural
Cancer Society, more people in the population is reaching the age that movement as a patient breathes. Our
United States are winning their battle with makes them more likely to get cancer.” new Optical Surface Mapping Systems
will account for these natural movements
cancer than dying from it.
The Glenda Tanner Vasicek Cancer
Treatment Center at Baylor Scott & White
Meeting the community’s needs
About half of all cancer patients will
and eliminate the need for immobilization.
This improvement will make the process
shorter and more comfortable for patients.
in Temple is a proud part of the effort to need radiation therapy at some point improve quality of life and survival rates during their treatment. A 26,000 square- for cancer patients throughout Central foot addition to our current facilities will also offers High Dose Rate Brachytherapy,
Texas. Each year at the Vasicek Cancer expand our radiation oncology services a powerful form of internally delivered
Treatment Center, we provide care at to help meet increasing demand. radiation therapy. This technique involves
more than 43,000 patient visits and
acquire more than 2,000 new patients.
“One of the biggest risk factors for
Plans for the expansion include two
Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center
placing a radiation source directly within
advanced linear accelerators. Linear or adjacent to a tumor, minimizing the
accelerators deliver high energy beams effects of treatment on normal tissue. This
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THE COMPASS / BAYLOR SCOTT & WHITE CENTRAL TEXAS FOUNDATION NEWS / FALL 2019