Contact: Sheila Hotchkin, (210) 567-3026

Myrtis Mooney of Jourdanton (right) sees CTRC radiation oncologist Gregory P. Swanson, M.D., at the Jourdanton Community Cancer Center. Mooney and her daughter were relieved that they didn’t have to drive daily to San Antonio for several weeks for treatments.
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JOURDANTON (May 12, 2010) — Radiation treatment for cancer often involves brief daily sessions for weeks at a time, and until now, many South Texas cancer patients had to travel to San Antonio, the Texas-Mexico border or the Gulf Coast for radiation therapy.

Now, there’s a new option: About 95 percent of patients whose cancers respond to radiation can be treated at the Jourdanton Community Cancer Center, which recently entered into a service agreement with the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The Jourdanton Community Cancer Center is located in the Steinle Medical Office Building of the South Texas Regional Medical Center, 1901 Highway 97 East, Suite 110. That is 55 miles south of the CTRC, 150 miles west of Corpus Christi and 220 miles north of Harlingen.

Collaboration will trim travel for South Texas patients
“As a university that receives support from the state of Texas, we wanted to reach out and give something back to the people of South Texas,” said Chul Soo Ha, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Health Science Center.

The service agreement began March 30. Within weeks, the Jourdanton center was providing radiation therapy to patients, some of whom acknowledged they had been diagnosed with cancer months ago but deferred treatment because of the distances they would have had to travel.

Radiation therapist Carrie Willis (right) at the Jourdanton Community Cancer Center delivers cancer treatment using plans developed by the CTRC. The patient, 82-year-old Myrtis Mooney, didn’t know how she was going to be able to make the 55-mile trip from her home in Jourdanton to San Antonio for weeks of daily radiation treatments.

“If a person who lives in the rural areas of South Texas is diagnosed with cancer and needs radiation therapy, the clinic in Jourdanton will trim the travel distance for the patient and the family,” said CTRC radiation oncologist Gregory P. Swanson, M.D., who is also a clinical associate professor at the Health Science Center. “This outreach brings good cancer treatment closer to home for a large geographical area and likely will mean more patients will receive the care they need.”

Patients will receive treatment on the Jourdanton center’s Siemens Oncor Impression Linear Accelerator, equipment that provides external beam radiation therapy known as IMRT, IGRT and 3D conformal. According to the CTRC’s Dr. Ha, these technologies are capable of treating 95 percent of all cancers that can benefit from radiation.

Carrie Willis, radiation therapist at the Jourdanton Community Cancer Center and a former CTRC employee, said, “When you take our equipment and expertise and add to it the cadre of CTRC physicians, physicists and dosimetrists who create the patients’ treatment plans, we can offer the same high-quality care that patients would get by driving to the larger cities. We have excellent coordination between our staff and the CTRC to ensure quality.”

Those few patients who cannot be treated in Jourdanton can seek care at the CTRC in San Antonio.

CTRC physician will be in Jourdanton two days a week
Patients can be evaluated by Dr. Swanson at the Jourdanton Community Cancer Center two days a week, currently Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Radiation therapy is offered Monday through Friday. To schedule an appointment, call (830) 769-3980.

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The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is one of the elite academic cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center, and is one of only three in Texas. A leader in developing new drugs to treat cancer, the CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) conducts one of the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug programs in the world, and participates in development of cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. For more information, visit www.ctrc.net.