• Amanda Bridges
• July 8, 2017
• News

Brought to you by a 100% FLASCO Membership Partner

First in Area to Offer Latest Advances in Radiation Therapy

Spring Hill, FL – July 7, 2017 Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) is pleased to announce that FCS’s Brooksville office, located at 7154 Medical Center Drive Spring Hill, FL, is the first community oncology location in the area to have a Varian VitalBeam™ linear accelerator (LINAC), which utilizes new technology that enables our physicians to provide patients with cutting-edge radiation therapy. The LINAC delivers high-energy x-rays or electrons to the region of the patient’s tumor; it is used to treat all parts and organs of the body.

FCS CEO Brad Prechtl said, “We are very excited to bring this new technology to patients in Hernando County, as a part of the ongoing growth and development of our radiation oncology program. Florida Cancer Specialists is committed to providing the highest quality care and latest therapies in the treatment of cancer, so that our patients do not have the additional burden of having to travel to larger academic centers. And for those patients who need both medical oncology and radiation therapy, there is the added convenience of having both treatments available under one roof.”

FCS Founder and President Dr. William Harwin added, “While Florida Cancer Specialists is best known for the national benchmarks we have set in medical oncology and for our clinical research program, the practice does have strategic locations within our network that also provide radiation oncology, including the cancer center in Brooksville. In every one of these centers, we are accredited for radiation treatment, maintain the very highest professional standards and employ an outstanding team of radiation oncologists, medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiation therapists and oncology nurses.”

Radiation oncologist Dr. Sawsan Bishay said, “In addition to precisely targeting each tumor, the new VitalBeam™ enables us to customize radiation treatment for each individual patient. It also increases the types of radiation therapy we can now provide, including Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) for small lesions in the brain and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) for solitary lesions in the body. SBRT also allows us to apply a very high dose of radiation in as few as one to five treatments.”

Dr. Larry Gandle, who is also a radiation oncologist at the FCS Brooksville location, explained, “The LINAC also has Rapid Arc capability, which allows us to provide Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT). With this new technology, we can place the radiation beams and adjust the intensity of the beams on and around a tumor, providing maximum dose delivery to the tumor while sparing adjacent healthy tissues from the radiation.”

The Varian VitalBeam™ offers expanded capabilities for clinical care, including:

• Cone Beam CT, allowing the physician to visualize the tumor prior to each treatment to guarantee targeting consistency

• On Board Imaging, enabling the physician and staff to produce x-rays as needed to confirm positioning accuracy

• Four photon energies, allowing customized treatment planning to adjust according to location of tumor

• Six electron energies, permitting the doctor to treat superficial cancers to varying depths

• 120 Multi-leaf collimator, which is used to shape the radiation beam and/or intensity of radiation beam,

customized for each patient

About Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute: (FLCancer.com)
Founded in 1984, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) is the largest independent medical oncology/hematology practice in the United States. With over 200 physicians, 160 nurse practitioners and physician assistants and nearly 100 locations in our network, we are committed to providing world-class cancer care in community-based settings close to home.

Recognized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) with a national Clinical Trials Participation Award, FCS offers patients access to more clinical trials than any private oncology practice in Florida. 84% of new cancer drugs approved in 2016 for use in the U.S. were studied in clinical trials conducted with FCS participation*. Our physicians are consistently ranked nationally as Top Doctors by U.S. News & World Report.Trained in such prestigious medical schools and research institutes as Duke, Stanford, Harvard, Emory, M.D. Anderson, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the physicians of Florida Cancer Specialists provide leadership and consultation in the state’s leading hospitals.

FCS serves patients on the Gulf Coast from Naples to the greater Tampa Bay area, north as far as Tallahassee, in Orlando and surrounding Central Florida communities, and on the East Coast from Jacksonville/Fleming Island to Palm Beach County.

Florida Cancer Specialists has built a national reputation for excellence that is reflected in exceptional and compassionate patient care, driven by innovative clinical research and cutting-edge technologies that help advance targeted treatments and genetically-based immunotherapies, and embodied by our outstanding team of highly-trained and dedicated physicians, clinicians and staff.

* Prior to approval

For More Information, Contact:
Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute
Shelly Glenn, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer – sglenn@flcancer.com
770.365.6168

ChappellRoberts
Chris Wilkerson – cwilkerson@chappellroberts.com
813.857.7051

Ganick Communications, Inc.
Elaine Ganick – elaine@ganick.com
615.377.7877