Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS) brought a new Siemens PET/CT 20 slice Scanner to Hernando County. The new scanner represents around a million-dollar investment in the technology that the statewide practice brings to local cancer patients.
This new scanner represents “next-generation” imaging technology and allows Florida Cancer Specialists to perform scans faster for the patient with less artifacts created by movement of the patient or from breathing. It also allows the technician to control and record the amount of radiation that each patient receives, so that the smallest dosage of radiation necessary can be used and physicians can keep track of and monitor the amount of radiation a patient receives across all of their medical treatments, satisfying new health law requirements. The new scanner has a much larger “bore” (hole in the center of the scanner) so it can handle larger patients weighing up to 500 pounds; the added space also helps reduce anxiety for many patients who may have felt confined in the older model scanners.
I spoke with Dr. Vikas Malhotra, FCS medical oncologist and hematologist, and he was very excited by the improvements that he has seen in local cancer treatment during the past 13 years. Because of recent advancements in treatment and cutting-edge technologies, such as the new PET/CT scanner,
Dr. Malhotra said he is seeing more local patients referred from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for treatment closer to home at Florida Cancer Specialists. Of course, it is a two-way street; Florida Cancer Specialists also refers patients to Moffitt, if needed. He mentioned that the vast majority of patients can receive the most advanced and personalized treatments for cancer here locally in Hernando County, unless there is a specific reason they need to travel to an academic medical center, such as a patient having acute leukemia, needing a complicated surgery or access to a certain clinical trial not offered at FCS. Dr. Malhotra said, “Fighting cancer is difficult enough without long trips for treatment.”
In addition to the PET/CT scanner, FCS has a Linear Accelerator for radiation therapy that can be used to treat certain types of cancer; and they have a robust clinical trials program. In 2015, for example, 70% of all the new cancer drugs that were approved were available in clinical trials prior to FDA approval in which FCS participated.
It is great to see Hernando County receiving state-of-the-art medical equipment. This means good paying local jobs and improves the health care that is being provided in the area.
