FALL RIVER
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MEDICAL SECRETARIES/AsSISTANTS
CONGRATULATE ,THE
DIRECTORS, OFFICERS AND STAFF OF
ST. ANNE'S HOSPITAL
ON THE COMPLETION OF THE NEW
ONCOLOGy/RADIATION THERAPY CENTER
THE ONCOLqGY/RADIATION THERAPY CENTER IMPROVES ST. ANNE'S HOSPITAL'S EVER IMPROVING HEALTH CARE SERVICES' TO THE FALL RIVER COMMUNITY
CIT1ZENS-~ RANK ~o\VI1'C,S
DR. SIMON KIM, chief of radiation medicine at the Hudner Center, discusses treat ment with a patient.
A·. dream come true
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By Pat McGowan
Slightly oyer a year ago, on ,April 24, .1984, ground was broken for' ~a cancer treatment center at St..Anne's Hospital, Fan River. . . Ne~t Wednesday, May 29, the state-of-the-art Harold K. Hud ner OncologyIRadiation Therapy Center will be 4edicated at cere monies beginning with a 4 p.m. Mass at St. Anne's Church, across Middle Street from the ..... hospital. ., . In the a'b~nce of Bishop Dan iel A. .Cronin, in Rome for cere At Lafayette, we are proud of St. Anne's monies, elevating Boston Arch Hospital"s fine tradition caring with bishop Bernard F. Law and 27 excellence for all the great people of . other prelates to membership in the conege of cardinals, the prin , Southeastern Massachusetts. cipal .celebrant of the Mass wil\' be Msgr. lc>hn J. Regan. Msgr. Regan is episcopal vicar for the Fan River and New Bed ford areas of the diocese and director of diocesan health fa FEDERAL SA VINGS BANK ,~ cilities. Mass concelebrants will be ~
Fathers Edmund J. Fitzgerald, RaY-Jl1ond M. Drouin, OP, Neii F. 'Decker, SJ, and John R. FoIster. Father Fitzgerald,' director of the diocesan department of Pastoral Care for the Sick, will also be the homilist. Lectors wilI be Richard Hen to wig, MD, and Simon Kim, MD. Forming the offertory procession will be Janice Ba'l'1ow and· Con stance Morrissette, Therapy on the completion ofthe Center receptionists; Atty. Harold K. Hudner, for whom the center is named; Jeffrey KeHy, the hos pital's administrative director of radiology; Norbert Berube, plant operations director; and Sister from the Mary Margaret Meno, OP, of the hospita;l's pastoral care depart ment. Singing at the Mass will be the Fan River Diocesan Choir, direc ted by Glenn Giuttari with Jo anne Mercier and Ada .Simpson . as cantors. Accompanying them win be organist John Hubert, the FIRST FEDERAL 'United Brass, Quintet and the SAVINGS BANK OF AMERICA Chapel BeNes of the 'First Bap tist Church of Fall River, direc .FA!..!.. RIVER ATTL.EBORO NEW BEDFoRO SOMERseT. ~~UNTON ALL PHOTOS for this ted by Ruth E. Hathaway. After the Mass, Msgr. Regan special section are by Sister will bless t~e new center, then a Gertru~e Gau~ette, OP..
Best Wishes to St. Anne's Ho~pital Oncology/Radiation Center .
of
LAFAYETTE
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procession will m'ove to its re~ ception and consultation rooms and to arees housing the simula tor and linear accelerator cancer treatment equipment. A cross will be placed at each site. At a speaking program to fol low, SiSter Dorothy Ruggiero, OP, provincial superior of the Dominican Sisters of the. Pre sentation, hospital founders, will .extend a welcome to guests and Msgr.Regan will bring the .con gratulati~ns of the Fall .River diocese. . FaU River Mayor Carlton -Viveiros will express the best wishes of the city and hospital administrator Alan D. Knight ,wiU thank the community for its sup port of the Therapy Center. Remarks from Dr. David Greer, dean of the Brown Uni versity School of MediCine, will .follow and closing comments will be by Sister Ruggiero: The festivities wHoI bring to a triumphant conclusion 13 months of, unremitting work that will bring sopnisticated cancer treat ment to the region extending west to Providence, east to Cape Cod, north to Brockton and south to Newport. ' Offering surgical intervention, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the center is capable of handling all but a tiny fracton of cancer cases, said Mark Koste gan; St. Anne's public relations dJrector. Most . area patients will' 'be' "able to get treatment virtuaUy in their backyard," concurred Ralph' DiPisa, an assistant ad ministrator at the hospitaL The most important piece of equipment within the $3 million center is its six megavolt rota tional linear accelerator, whioh affords almost pinpoint accuracy in treatment of cancers while re ducing radiation received by normal tissue. The accelerator delivers a high-
COYJgratulations
ST. ANNE'S HOSPITAL
ONCOLOGY/RADIATION THERAPY CENTER OFFICERS, DIRECTORS and EMPLOYEES of
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speed current of photon beams to cancerous celIs in an effort to destroy them. It can be used for treatment of skin ·and surface cancers, in addition to deep tumors. Haying both capabilities is unique to this'particular model· of linear accelerator. A significant advantage is the machine's speed, reducing time of treatment while increasing the ability to reach cancerous' cells. Another plus ·is the rotational feature, whioh removes the nec essity of repositioning a patient .needing therapy from ~ore than one angle. The linear accelerator inter faces with a treatment planning computer which programs for proper positioning of the radia tion beam' during therapy and . calculates treatment dosage. "The Radiation Treatment p'lanning (RTP) equipment pro vides the hospital with a new dimension-in cancer care by as suring highly efficient use of radiation therapy," said Martin Fraser, St. Anne's radiation physicist. Responsible for the technical planning aspects of radiation ,therapy, he explained that the high-technology RTP interfaces with the hospital's computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanner. "After a CAT scan locates a .tumor," he said, "that informa tion is entered into the RTP. From the CAT scan picture, the RTP analyzes a1'1 factors whioh need to ,be considered' in the tu mor treatment, including size and location. It then provides in formation on the ap})ropriate radiation therapy technique to be used." Dr. Simon Kim, chief of radia tion medicine at S1. A'nne's, fur ther explained that when a tumor is radiated, it is important to make sure not only that the can , cerous area. ,receives the opti mum dose, but also ,tha't neigh boring non-cancerous areas t>e spared radiation. "The sophistication of the RTP is such that. it provides us with .' numerous options in the meth(ld Turn to Page Eight