CLOSE TO HOME. HOME TO THE BEST. His Story. Our Mission.
For a long time, getting serious cancer treatment in the Rio Grande Valley meant leaving it. Long drives. Hotel rooms far from family. Expenses that added up fast. And the quiet weight of managing a disease while also managing life from a distance. That’s the journey Arnoldo Rodriguez knows firsthand. A Palmhurst native, retired educator, and Latino cancer patient advocate, Arnoldo had received cancer treatment at major institutions outside the Valley before. He knew what that looked like. When his prostate cancer returned, he made a different call. He stayed home. “All I have to do is drive from Palmhurst to McAllen and get my treatment,” he said. “Whereas if I had to leave town, we’re talking about expenses — renting an apartment, time away from family, all of that. Not having to leave family. Not having to worry about — do I need to cut the yard, do I need to do this and that? It’s a comfort for anyone receiving cancer treatment.” Arnoldo is one of a growing number of Valley residents who received radiation therapy at the UT Health RGV Cancer and Surgery Center in McAllen — a facility built specifically so that patients no longer have to choose between world-class care and being close to the people who matter most. At the heart of the center’s radiation program is the Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator — state-of-theart technology capable of targeting tumors as small as three millimeters with a precision previously unavailable anywhere in the region. Treatments that once required extended travel can now be completed in as little as 10 minutes per session, close to home. “I’ve done my research on the TrueBeam,” Arnoldo said. “It is really the latest state of the art — very precise, very quick, and painless.”
Under the care of specialists like Dr. Pagliuca and the radiation oncology team, patients receive highly personalized care supported by advanced technology and coordinated treatment planning. Physicians, dosimetrists, and radiation therapists trained at nationally recognized cancer programs designed and now operate the center’s radiation program. For Arnoldo, that distinction showed up every day. “All of these oncologists and doctors made a real difference for me,” he said. “They were very meticulous about making sure everything went perfectly. They became my friends.” What also stood out was how connected the care felt. At other institutions, patients are often sent to different locations for each piece of their care — a specialist here, imaging there, treatment somewhere else.