SERVICES
Sand Lake Cancer Center provides many services for our patients.
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Please take a look at some of the services we offer.
MEDICAL ONCOLOGY
At Sand Lake Cancer Center, you will have the attention of our entire helpful and caring staff. You will have numerous health care professionals to help you or your loved one battle cancer. One of these specialists is your Medical Oncologist.
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The Medical Oncologist is a doctor who specializes in detecting cancer, and then treating it using medication such as chemotherapy, hormones, monoclonal antibodies and immunotherapy. It is the oncologist who definitively discovers cancer when you or your primary care physician suspect you may have it.
Our Medical Oncologists are board-certified and expertly trained to understand the patho-physiology of cancers at different places in the body. Our Oncology specialists at Sand Lake Cancer Center specialize in treating all types of cancer and have a detailed knowledge of the use of medications for the management of invasive cancer.
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You can be confident that our Medical Oncologists will take advantage of the most up-to-date knowledge, technologies and therapies to accurately assess your medical condition, address your symptoms and thoroughly educate you on your treatment options. They work in conjunction with Radiation Oncologists, Surgical Oncologists, and other physicians specializing in particular types of cancer when necessary to provide the most cutting edge and comprehensive care available in implementing your treatment regimen.
HEMATOLOGY
Dr. Hernandez is also a board certified Hematologist and can treat a multitude of blood disorders.
A Hematologist is a doctor who specializes in diagnosing, and treating blood disorders. Diseases such as iron-deficiency anemia, hemophilia, sickle-cell disease and much more are all usually treated by a hematologist.
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Sometimes chemotherapy can cause blood disorders, so blood levels are monitored at almost every visit to Sand Lake Cancer Center.
INFUSION THERAPY
ChemoTherapy
(often abbreviated to chemo) is the treatment of cancer with drugs that can destroy cancer cells
by impeding their growth and reproduction.
At Sand Lake Cancer Center, we work closely with our patients to meet their individual needs before, during and after Chemotherapy. Our supportive therapies help to relax and minimize side effects.
At Sand Lake cancer Center, Chemotherapy is an important part of treatment for many of our patients. We constantly think “outside of the box” to try different approaches and minimize side effects. Before receiving chemotherapy we may perform tumor molecular profiling to determine the right combination of Chemotherapy drugs to use for your particular type of cancer. During Chemotherapy, you can relax in our infusion area, talk with family or friends, or nap in a private lounge chair.
After Chemotherapy, we’ll manage any side effects of treatment. To combat nausea, our medical oncologist may prescribe medication or offer natural therapies. We often combine chemotherapy with other advanced therapies, like radiation therapy and immunotherapy, to help you fight cancer and support your quality of life.
Certain chemotherapeutic agents also have a role in the treatment of other conditions, including ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and scleroderma.
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Traditional chemotherapeutic agents act by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells. This means that chemotherapy also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract, and hair follicles. This results in the most common side-effects of chemotherapy: myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells, hence also immunosuppression), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract), and alopecia (hair loss).
Some newer anticancer drugs (for example, various monoclonal antibodies) are not indiscriminately cytotoxic, but rather target proteins that are abnormally expressed in cancer cells and that are essential for their growth. Such treatments are often referred to as targeted therapy (as distinct from classic chemotherapy) and are often used alongside traditional chemotherapeutic agents in antineoplastic treatment regimens.
This is the Sand Lake Cancer Center Infusion Suite Located at the Sand Lake Commons Office.
Non-ChemoTherapy
Infusions
We also infuse other medications for the treatment of diseases.
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Including but not limited to:
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Aredia treats Hypercalcemia.
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Entyvio treats Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis.
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Iron / Ferrlecit treats Iron Deficiency Anemia.
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Reclast / Zometa treats Osteoporosis.
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Remicade treats Ulverative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, Psoriasis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Etc.
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Rituxan treats Rheumatoid Arthritis.
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Tysabri treats Multiple Sclerosis.
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RADIATION ONCOLOGY
Radiation Oncology is an integral part of cancer care. It may be a primary therapy by itself or radiation therapy can be combined with chemotherapy, hormone therapy, surgery or a combination of the three. The team at Sand Lake Cancer
Center includes the area’s leaders in Radiation Oncology and offers the latest in leading-edge technology.
Radiation therapy works by damaging the DNA in the cancer cell, thereby preventing the cancer cells from reproducing and growing. The cancer cells then die and the cancer shrinks. The objective of radiation therapy is to kill enough cancer cells to maximize the probability of cure and minimize the side effects. Under some circumstances,
radiation therapy may also be used as palliation, or palliative care, which is aimed at reducing symptoms but not curing the underlying disease.
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Radiation is usually administered in the form of high-energy beams that deposit the radiation dose in the body where cancer cells are located. Radiation therapy, unlike chemotherapy, is considered a local treatment. This means that cancer cells are killed only at the location in the body where the radiation is delivered, called the Radiation Field. If cancer exists outside the radiation field, those cancer cells are not destroyed by the radiation. With more sophisticated treatment planning, radiation treatments can often be delivered with a maximum dose to the tumor, while minimizing potential side effects.
RADIATION THERAPY
Radiation Treatment is used to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells by using high-energy radiation. At Sand Lake Cancer Center we offer multiple types of Radiation Therapy:
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IGRT - Image-Guided Radiation Therapy
Uses imaging technology to guide and create a more precise and accurate area of treatment. IGRT is used to treat tumors in areas of the body that move, such as the lungs.
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IMRT - Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy
Delivers precise radiation doses to tumor site and minimizes the dose delivered to surrounding healthy tissue. IMRT is usually used when there is an organ at risk close to the tumor site. IMRT is used for Prostate, Head and Neck, and the Central Nervous System. It can also be used to treat other areas.
SBRT - Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy
Specially designed coordinate-system is used for exact and precise localization of the tumor in order to treat it. This is used to treat Tumors outside of the Central Nervous System. It can be a single high dose radiation treatment or a few fractionated treatments. It can be used to treat a large variety of tumors, but usually used to decrease chance of affecting other vital organs.
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HDR - High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy
This form of radiation therapy delivers radiation from an implant that is placed close to the tumor. This technique gives the maximum radiation dose to tumor sites while minimizing exposure to surrounding tissue. Used for Cervical, Prostate, Breast and many other cancers.
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Radio-Ablation / Thyroid Ablation
Radioactive Iodine is administered to destroy any healthy thyroid tissue remaining after thyroidectomy. Used for Thyroid Cancer.
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Electron Treatments for Skin Cancers
Electron Beam Therapy is a type of Radiation Therapy that is mainly used for skin cancers. It is superficial so that it will not affect any tissues that are deep.
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This machine is used to deliver Radiation Therapy.
DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING
Nuclear medicine
PET/CT Scan
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Sand Lake Cancer Center provides state of the art PET/CT diagnostic imaging at our Stonerock Location.
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A PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) is a type of nuclear medicine imaging. It is an imaging test that can be used to evaluate biological functions of cells and organs. A PET scan will usually take 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete. The patient will be injected with a radioactive sugar tracer and will then be scanned. A PET scan is vital to cancer patients as it can be used to determine the stage of the cancer, if the treatment is working, and in certain cases to even diagnose cancer.
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Usually PET images and CT images are fused to create clearer images of the tumor or mass.
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Diagnostic CT Scan
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A CT scan (computed tomography) is used to create detailed scans of areas inside the body. It can be used to detect abnormal growths or even to diagnose the presence of a tumor.
Even certain biopsy procedures require CT guidance to determine exactly where to perform the biopsy.
A CT scan can be performed on single areas of the body, or even the full body.
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PET/CT scans are done using this machine.