Category: News

BY COLLIN BREAUX – News Herald Reporter | Posted Jan 22, 2018 at 3:44 PM | Updated Jan 22, 2018 at 3:44 PM

LYNN HAVEN — When the Hope Regional Cancer Center opened in 2012, it only offered radiation treatment. Late last year, however, it expanded to offer other services so patients can get more work done under one roof.

The cancer center, 2900 State 77 in Lynn Haven, originally was called the Hope Radiation Cancer Center but since has changed its name to reflect its growing medical options. Patients now can see several medical specialists at one place, which helps when the different treatments are related. Besides radiation, the center now handles chemotherapy, hematology and urology as part of its oncology treatment.

“When a cancer patient comes in, many times they require both radiation and chemotherapy,” radiation oncologist Hasan Murshed said. “So in the past what we had to do was do radiation here, and then go for chemotherapy consultation at a different location at a different doctor’s office. Coordination is difficult. The patient is sick. They have to drive around town. They’re elderly people mostly. … From the patient’s perspective, this is much easier.”

The change took place in the mid-September so patients had a “more comprehensive center,” Murshed said. The expansion has always been a vision and desire for the center, finally coming to fruition when had the funding and medical staff to implement it.

“It’s going well,” Murshed said. “Patients are coming in and getting treatment.”

Robert Oldham, the center’s hematologist oncologist, came on several months ago and said the increased services are necessary because Hope’s patients often require surgery and specialists. Hematology deals with blood diseases like iron deficiency and anemia, while oncology deals with several aspects of cancer.

“Cancer is a complex disease,” said Oldham, who previously ran a cancer center in Key West. “I think what Dr. Murshed has done is set the center up so we can match up with those complexities and take care of the whole patient. … I’m glad to be a part of it. It’s very well put together.”

Robert Bloom, the center’s urologist, also has been on-site for the past few months after previously working elsewhere in Panama City. He has practiced medicine throughout the country including in New Orleans, Dallas and Oklahoma.

“It’s very convenient. It’s a new building,” Bloom said. “When I was a resident, the most common cancer in men was lung cancer. Two was colon cancer. Three was prostate cancer. Now the men stop smoking, it’s switched around. The most common cancer for men, except for skin cancer, is prostate cancer. Men are living longer and getting screened for prostate cancer.”

The radiation offered in the same facility is convenient Bloom said, because many prostate cancer patients don’t want to be “cut on” and prefer other treatment.

Along with the numerous specialists a PET scan machine also will be added, likely in March, to replace the center’s current CT scan machine. PET machines have more precise scanning, Murshed said. The center is waiting on the PET machine to be shipped in, and the scan room will be expanded to make space for it.

Robert Oldham, M.D.
Hasan Murshed, M.D.

Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the power of your body’s immune system to attack cancer cells. Your immune system is a collection of tissues, organs and cells that work together to protect you from infections and diseases. It can keep track of the substances normally found in your body. New “foreign” substances that the immune system doesn’t recognize cause it to go into self-defense mode to protect you by killing off these invaders.

Cancer cells are foreign to the body. As such, once the immune system recognizes the cancer cells in the blood stream, it then activates the T cells and other immune cells within the lymph nodes. These T cells are then transported to the site of the cancer location, where T cells recognize and kill the cancer cells.

The main types of immunotherapy now being used to treat cancer include:

• Cancer Vaccines: Immune system cells are removed from the patient’s body, which are then sensitized to the cancer cells. The cells are infused back to the patient, which produces immune response to the cancer. Provenge vaccine is now approved for prostate cancer treatment. There are other cancer vaccines under development.
• Monoclonal Antibodies: These are man-made versions of immune system tumor specific proteins that are designed to attack a specific cancer cell. Herceptin is a monoclonal antibody used in treating breast cancer.
• Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: These drugs alert and activate the immune system so tumor cells have no place to hide from the immune system. Most recently, Keytruda was approved for melanoma treatment and Opdivo was approved for lung cancer treatment.

Immunotherapy is administered through an IV or as a pill. Today, it is being used to treat many different types of cancer including melanoma, breast, lung, gastric, colorectal, cervical, kidney, bladder, prostate and ovarian cancer.

Immunotherapy is a relatively new therapy in the cancer fighting arsenal. It has been found to be effective for certain cancers when other treatments are not. As a combination therapy with other treatments, it may help them to work better. Side effects such as flu-like symptoms, fatigue, rash and dizziness may occur during or after treatment.

Fortunately, the Bay County community now has access to these novel immunotherapies at Hope Regional Cancer Center. If you are diagnosed with a cancer, before undergoing any treatment, you should talk with several cancer specialists to find out which treatment options are appropriate for you.

[Dr. Hasan Murshed and Dr. Robert Oldham are board-certified cancer specialists and consultants at the Bay Medical Regional Cancer Center and at Gulf Coast Medical Center. Reach them at 850-481-1697 or www.HopeRegionalCancerCenter.com. This information is intended for education only. For treatment, seek advice from your physician.]

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – A specialized form of radiation therapy is helping reduce side effects for cancer patients. It’s called Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, or IMRT. Radiation Oncologist Dr. Hasan Murshed says treatment time and side effects are reduced when using this technique.

“It focuses the radiation beam more accurately and more precisely toward the target,” explains Dr. Murshed.

Patients undergo a CT Scan. That data is put into a supercomputer that helps doctors design a customized treatment plan that shows exactly where the radiation beams should go.

“It can minimize the radiation dose to the skin of the breast cancer patient’s breast surface so we have less skin reaction, less side effects, less pain medication requirement, and they don’t have to break for treatment,” says Dr. Murshed.

IMRT was originally designed for head and neck cancers but is now being used to treat prostate and breast cancers as well.