| Compassionate care for patients with cancer
This page offers an overview of the services we offer at the Cancer Care Center of York County. We encourage cancer patients and their families to “shop around” before choosing a cancer treatment center, because feeling confident, comfortable and cared for is so important to your recovery. We hope that you’ll call us with your questions or to schedule a tour.
Comprehensive services
Support groups and resource center
Nutrition services
Advanced technology
Radiation therapy
Chemotherapy
Access to clinical trials
What is a clinical trial?
Comprehensive services
After a patient has been diagnosed with cancer, his or her primary care physician or oncologist will develop a treatment plan that may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or all three. At the Cancer Care Center of York County, we provide chemotherapy and radiation therapy, as well as other cancer care services such as genetic counseling, palliative care and hospice care. Part of our role as a Cancer Center is to educate and inform both our patients and the larger community.
If you become a patient at the Cancer Care Center of York County, we will maintain close communication with your primary care doctor and oncologist, so you’ll never lose continuity in those important relationships. We also (with your permission of course) will maintain close communication with your family and friends, whose support and understanding are so important to your recovery.
Support groups and resource center
At the Cancer Care Center of York County, we do more than treat disease. We help patients and their families optimize their health while coping with the challenges of living with cancer. We help arrange home care and respite care, and help with transportation and financial issues. Our Cancer Support Group, free and open to anyone, meets here on the first and third Thursday of each month from 6 PM - 7 PM.
We also offer a monthly Survivorship Program. Pre-registration is required for all programs. Please call 207-459-1658 to reserve you space for any of the following programs:
- February 27th and April 24th
(12-1pm) - Living with Late Long Term Effects from Cancer Treatment with Melanie Cogan, NP
- March 27th and May 22nd
(12-1pm) - On the Other Side of Cancer - Fear of Recurrence. Living with Uncertainty and Your New Range of Emotions with Grace Wright, LMSW-CC
Our cancer information library includes many books, CDs and periodicals, as well as a computer with Internet access to excellent online cancer information resources. This library is open to the public, although our patients and their families have priority when using the computer.
Throughout the year, our physicians and nurses participate in a variety of cancer education and awareness building activities, including lectures, screenings and events such as Relay for Life and Mary’s Walk.
Nutrition services
Good nutrition is particularly vital for cancer patients. Not only is good nutrition important to maintaining body weight; it is also associated with how well the patient responds to treatment and their risk of therapy-related toxicity. A Licensed, registered dietician is available by appt twice a month.
Advanced technology
Built in 2006, the Cancer Care Center of York County features the latest, most advanced resources for treating cancer. Our radiation equipment is truly the “latest and greatest,” allowing our team to target treatment with pinpoint accuracy using minimal amounts of radiation. Our radiation treatment center features:
• Dual-energy x-ray “accelerator” with electron capabilities
• CT simulator with a 3-D conformal treatment planning system
• Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy (radiation oncology)
Radiation therapy utilizes high-energy rays (such as x-rays) to kill or shrink cancer cells and to treat other benign conditions.
In treating cancer, the radiation may come from outside of the body (external radiation) or from radioactive materials placed directly in the tumor (brachytherapy). Radiation therapy may be used:
- To reduce the size of a cancer before surgery
- To destroy any remaining cancer cells after surgery, or, in some cases,
- As the primary treatment for cancer and other diseases.
For more information about radiation therapy, we encourage you to visit the Web site of the Center’s radiation oncology physicians: Spectrum Medical Group.
Chemotherapy (medical oncology)
Chemotherapy is any treatment involving the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Cancer chemotherapy may consist of single drugs or combinations of drugs, and can be administered through a vein, injected into a body cavity, or delivered orally in the form of a pill.
Chemotherapy is different from surgery or radiation therapy in that the cancer-fighting drugs circulate in the blood to parts of the body where the cancer may have spread and can kill or eliminate cancer cells at sites great distances from the original cancer. As a result, chemotherapy is considered a systemic treatment.
More than half of all people diagnosed with cancer receive chemotherapy. For millions of people who have cancers that respond well to chemotherapy, this approach helps treat their cancer effectively, enabling them to enjoy full, productive lives. Furthermore, many side effects once associated with chemotherapy are now easily prevented or controlled, allowing many people to work, travel, and participate in many of their other normal activities while receiving chemotherapy.
For more information about chemotherapy, we encourage you to visit the Web site of the Center’s resident medical oncology practice: Maine Center for Cancer Medicine.
Access to clinical trials
Patients at the Cancer Care Center of York County have access to clinical trials for new cancer drugs and investigational protocols for radiation therapies through our two resident medical practices, Spectrum Medical Group and the Maine Center for Cancer Medicine & Blood Disorders.
Spectrum Medical Group’s is the only radiation oncology practice in Maine
that practices in facilities accredited by the American College of
Radiology. They also belong to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group
(RTOG). RTOG is a clinical cooperative group funded by the National
Cancer Institute whose studies have defined new national standards of care for
cancer patients.
The Maine Center for Cancer Medicine & Blood Disorders is the largest
oncology practice in the state of Maine, and can participate in any of the clinical trials available through the National Institutes of Health.
What is a clinical trial?
A clinical trial is a research study designed to evaluate potential new treatment options. These studies are the result of a long and deliberate cancer research process that often takes years. Clinical trials test the safety and effectiveness of new or modified cancer drugs, new drug doses, unique approaches to surgery or radiation therapy, and varied combinations of treatments.
Clinical trials are an integral component for improving the treatment of medical conditions because they lead to higher standards of care. In the United States, all new cancer treatment products must proceed through an orderly clinical trials evaluation process to ensure that they have an acceptable level of safety and demonstrate benefit to helping patients with a specific cancer before they become commercially available to other patients.
For more information about clinical trials, we encourage you to visit the Web site of our resident medical oncology practice: Maine Center for Cancer Medicine or the National Cancer Intitute's Web site. |
