Service Line Update: Collaboration Drives Our Cancer Care

MD Anderson Cancer Network®, a program of MD Anderson Cancer Center, is a network of select hospitals and health care systems dedicated to advancing the mission of eliminating cancer and elevating the quality and accessibility of cancer care to local communities around the world.

Oncology Institute Chair Charles Bane, MD, would like to remind providers that, as a certified member of the MD Anderson Cancer Network, Premier Health offers treatment based on national guidelines of cancer care and best practices established by MD Anderson.

Recently, MD Anderson advised Premier Health that all of our certified medical oncologists have continuously achieved greater than 90 percent concordance to guidelines in the medical oncology peer review process.

We now have 55 cancer specialists who have been certified through MD Anderson’s rigorous peer review concordance process. This collaboration also allows our certified cancer specialists to routinely discuss challenging cases with MD Anderson’s experts through physician-to-physician consultations, which shows our commitment to offer best-in-class care for our patients close to home.

Easy Referral Process to a Cancer Navigator Launches in January – A new and easy Epic and non-Epic referral process to an oncology nurse navigator will be available for physicians. In January, a formal communication plan including easy tips to refer a patient to a cancer navigator will be coming to physician practices. We encourage primary care physicians and specialists to refer to an oncology nurse navigator prior to or at the actual diagnosis so that the navigator can assist patients and their families with care coordination, transportation, and other supportive services within Premier Health and our community.

New Gynecological Cancer Clinical Trial (GOG 3036/MERCK) offered at Miami Valley Hospital South is the first and currently only site in the United States to offer a Phase III Clinical Trial Study for women with Stage III or IV BRCA negative ovarian cancer. The main goal of this study is to show the combination of standard chemotherapy + Keytruda + Lynparza is superior/better to standard chemotherapy alone by prolonging the time before disease progression and increasing overall survival statistics. For questions, please contact Michael Guy, MD, and Principal Investigator located at the MVHS Gynecological Oncology Center, at (937) 438-7800(937) 438-7800.

Technology - Radiation Oncology Services (ROS) - a joint venture between Premier Health, Dayton Physicians, and Wayne Hospital installed the new Trubeam XRT for patients at Upper Valley Medical Center and Atrium Medical Center this year. The new equipment delivers radiation treatment more effectively and reduces side effects and treatment time for cancer patients.

Ryan Steinmetz, MD, medical director of ROS, would like to educate physicians on another technology/procedure called SpaceOAR for prostate patients receiving external beam radiation therapy. It is a gel that is injected by the radiation oncology specialists in the space between the prostate and rectum. It is a one-time procedure prior to radiation therapy and performed in the operating room at Atrium Medical Center and Miami Valley Hospital South. During the planning process, we can protect the rectum from radiation exposure to reduce side effects during and after the radiation therapy. It disappears after the treatment is completed.

Back to the December 2019 issue of Premier Pulse.