VOORHEES, NJ– A much-anticipated, high-tech facility providing probably the most superior type of radiation remedy for most cancers will welcome its first sufferers on Tuesday, April 4.
Situated in Voorhees, NJ, the Penn Drugs |Virtua Well being Proton Remedy Middle – the primary of its variety in South Jersey – is one among solely about 50 such services in america.
The middle is the newest improvement within the longtime partnership between Virtua Well being, South Jersey’s largest well being care system, and Penn Drugs, a famend educational medical heart primarily based in Philadelphia.
The $45 million facility, situated on the Virtua Voorhees Hospital campus, offers native sufferers the added comfort of being nearer to residence and family members whereas present process remedy and restoration. The 8,600-square-foot heart took almost three years to construct, together with months of apparatus testing and calibration.
“Proton remedy permits us to focus on most cancers with pin-point precision that reduces the chance of negative effects by avoiding injury to the encompassing, wholesome tissue,” mentioned James Metz, MD, chair of Radiation Oncology within the Perelman College of Drugs on the College of Pennsylvania. “We’re excited to work with Virtua to convey proton remedy into the group, permitting extra sufferers to entry superior most cancers care nearer to residence.”
Proton remedy can be utilized for a lot of forms of most cancers, together with these in extremely delicate areas comparable to the guts, mind, and spinal twine, and cancers that can’t be fully eliminated by surgical procedure. On the core of the proton remedy heart is a 90-ton underground cyclotron, which accelerates subatomic particles to about 450 million miles per hour. This enables clinicians to deposit the protons deep right into a affected person’s tissue, and deal with a tumor spot-by-spot whereas sparing the wholesome tissue close by.
The brand new proton remedy heart in Voorhees is linked to the prevailing Penn Drugs |Virtua Well being Radiation Oncology suite, and a part of the great Penn Drugs |Virtua Well being Most cancers Program.
The ability provides a full vary of companies, together with analysis, remedy, and entry to scientific trials, some involving proton remedy.
“I see the proton remedy heart as a supply of hope,” mentioned Stephanie Fendrick, FACHE, MBA, govt vp and chief technique officer for Virtua Well being. “We wish each affected person to know they’ve a care workforce that can information and assist them each step of the best way.”
For extra info, go to www.virtua.org/pennproton or name (888) 847-8823.
Penn Drugs is likely one of the world’s main educational medical facilities, devoted to the associated missions of medical training, biomedical analysis, and excellence in affected person care. Penn Drugs consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman College of Drugs on the College of Pennsylvania (based in 1765 because the nation’s first medical faculty) and the College of Pennsylvania Well being Systemwhich collectively kind a $9.9 billion enterprise.
The Perelman College of Drugs has been ranked among the many high medical faculties in america for greater than 20 years, in keeping with US Information & World Report’s survey of research-oriented medical faculties. The College is constantly among the many nation’s high recipients of funding from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, with $546 million awarded within the 2021 fiscal 12 months.
The College of Pennsylvania Well being System’s affected person care services embody: the Hospital of the College of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Middle—that are acknowledged as one of many nation’s high “Honor Roll” hospitals by US Information & World Report—Chester County Hospital; Lancaster Common Well being; Penn Drugs Princeton Well being; and Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s first hospital, based in 1751. Extra services and enterprises embody Good Shepherd Penn Companions, Penn Drugs at Dwelling, Lancaster Behavioral Well being Hospital, and Princeton Home Behavioral Well being, amongst others.
Penn Drugs is powered by a gifted and devoted workforce of greater than 47,000 individuals. The group additionally has alliances with high group well being techniques throughout each Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, creating extra choices for sufferers irrespective of the place they dwell.
Penn Drugs is dedicated to enhancing lives and well being by way of a wide range of community-based packages and actions. In fiscal 12 months 2021, Penn Drugs offered greater than $619 million to learn our group.