With its sleek hardwood floors, sage green leather-bound reclining chairs and cozy atmosphere, it’s hard for patients to imagine they’re in the ValleyCare Regional Cancer Center. That’s the idea.
The center, which treats people with various types of cancer through modern radiation and chemotherapies, is not just warm and inviting–it’s state-of-the-art.
“All we need now is pedicures,” Dr. Peter Wong, director of the center, said jokingly at a recent ribbon-cutting and open house to celebrate the facility.
At the event, Wong was joined with other medical professionals who work at the cancer center, as well as those affiliated with the University of California Davis, which has partnered with ValleyCare Health System on the new endeavor. The center has been operating for about a year, just two blocks away from ValleyCare Medical Center, on West Las Positas Boulevard and Stoneridge Drive.
“ValleyCare is very proud of the efforts we’ve made to bring the business community and the medical community together,” said Ken Mercer, hospital spokesman for ValleyCare.
“Our community is so darn lucky to have doctors like this that are concerned about their patients and wanting to provide better care for their patients, willing to take a risk financially and to their medical profession, to go out of the way to produce better medical results for the Tri-Valley,” Mercer added. “We’re really blessed to have them here.”
The regional cancer center shares the same building as the Ryan Comer Cancer Resource Center, where cancer patients and their families can have access to a wealth of information–one of the largest collections of cancer-related education materials in Northern California. The resource center is on the second floor and the cancer center is on the first.
Valley Medical Oncology Consultants (VMOC) operate the $3-million center. Inside the walls of the facility are a computerized linear accelerator, where doctors can dial in radiation therapy treatments, and an infusion therapy center, where patients can receive chemotherapy, biologic therapy and other targeted therapies that are done on an outpatient basis. There are six examination rooms, a lab, nurses station, and two private chemotherapy rooms.
Imaging services, such as mammographies, ultrasounds, bone density and PET and CT scans, are available at ValleyCare Imaging Services, also housed at the center. Support services such as nutrition and education counseling, an outpatient pharmacy and medical counseling, cancer support groups, The Wellness Community, Hope Hospice and the Lymphedema Clinic also call the ValleyCare Regional Cancer Center home.
Through the partnership with UC Davis, the center has access to the latest clinical trials, funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), something that is both unique and an asset.
“By partnering with an NCI-designated cancer center, that means we can really come together for clinical care, but it also means we can really come together for things like clinical trials,” said Claire Pomeroy, physician and vice chancellor of human health services at UC Davis and dean of the medical school. “Having access to those opportunities gives you two things: one, you get access to cutting-edge therapies that you wouldn’t get otherwise, and two, you get the opportunity to give back by helping to grow the knowledge and understanding that we have of cancer.”
“And when you look around at the survival statistics of cancer, it’s this kind of research that translates into people living longer lives, finding cures, having good days with their families–that’s what this is all about.”
About 15 patients are currently being cared for at the facility, according to Dr. Michael Moyses, a radiation oncologist for VMOC.
Moyses operates the computerized linear accelerator, giving patients 1- to 2-minute radiation treatments. The accelerator features a flat bed the patient lays on while receiving centralized radiation. A towering machine above the bed can shape a beam to target a cancerous tumor while saving healthy tissue surrounding it, he said. The method is called IMRT, which stands for Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy. The room where the treatments are conducted is called the vault. Moyses controls the therapy in an area outside the vault through an array of dials and buttons.
In the infusion therapy center, outpatients can visit the center for chemotherapy, which fights the cancerous cells and biologic therapy, which helps a person’s immune system fight the cancer. Patients can take a seat at any one of the leather recliner chairs in the open area or at one of two private rooms to receive treatment by oncology-certified registered nurses.
Wong is arguably the most proud of the center coming to fruition. The medical oncologist started a program 30 years ago, when he said there were no oncologists in the Tri-Valley area. He’s been with VMOC since 1979.
“These machines are so precise, it can attack the cancer much faster,” he said. “And patients love it because they can get all of their treatments in one place.”
To receive treatment at the center, patients must be referred by their doctor.
The ValleyCare Regional Cancer Center is located at 5725 W. Las Positas Blvd., first floor. For more information, visit www.valleycare.com or www.vmoc.com.
Local surgeon performs high-tech hip replacement
ValleyCare orthopedic surgeon Aaron Salyapongse has performed the first surgery in Northern California using the latest technology for hip replacement.
The minimally invasive technique does not require dislocation of the hip to insert the prosthesis. Hip replacement surgeries, whether minimally invasive or the traditional open method, require dislocation in order to implant an artificial hip.
“With less anatomy disrupted during surgery, the joint is more stable and the potential for future dislocation is significantly reduced,” Salyapongse said.
A traditional open hip replacement surgery requires a 6 to 12-inch-long incision, which also results in a longer recovery.
Salyapongse completed a total joint replacement fellowship at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. He studied there under Dr. Stephen Murphy, who developed the latest technique, called Superior Capsulotomy.
Salyapongse is part of the Webster Orthopaedic Medical Group, which recently opened a new office on the ValleyCare Medical Center campus at 5555 W. Las Positas Blvd., Ste. 400.
