Sidney Health Center Cancer Care Expanding To Make Room For New Equipment

To celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Cancer Care Expansion, the Sidney Health Center Cancer Center had a few cancer patients, survivors, physicians, staff, and people from the community including SHC and Foundation board members come and sign their names on beams that were painted with the color "Brave Purple" recognizing all cancers that are treated within the walls of our Cancer Center, on Wednesday, Feb. 22. The beams would later become part of the Cancer Care Expansion.

According to documents supplied by the Sidney Health Center, in January 2011, Sidney Health Center was pleased to add Cancer Care Radiation Therapy Services to its list of services and therapies. It began with the installation of a TomoTherapy Hi-Art Radiation System. According to the Sidney Health Center website, TomoTherapy is the newest form of radiation treatment in which 360°, image-guided radiation is delivered to the tumor slice by slice. At the time it was the first of its kind in Montana. In October 2012 the Cancer Center added IV therapy treatment areas, centralizing outpatient medical and radiation oncology to one portion of the medical center. Sidney Health Center provided IV Therapy including Chemotherapy before 2012 through the Emergency Department. At 12 years of providing a highly beneficial service to the cancer patients of eastern Montana, the TomoTherapy machine is nearing the end of its useful life. It was decided that a separate radiation vault needed to be built for the new TomoTherapy machine and for it to be installed before retiring the old one. In this way cancer patients will be able to continue treatments without disruption due to the removal of the old machine.

Space is also being added for the addition of a hyperbaric chamber. According to Rita Steinbeisser, senior marketing executive, "Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used for several healing purposes including chronic wounds, ulcers, and side effects from radiation to name a few. With the hyperbaric chamber conveniently located in the cancer care expansion, it provides an opportunity to repair tissue damage that may occur as a result of radiation treatment methods."

Construction for the expansion is expected to be finished in the fall of 2023 with the installation of the new TomoTherapy machine and hyperbaric chambers not happening until January 2024. For more information on the Sidney Health Center Cancer Center and its services visit the center's website at http://www.sidneyhealth.org/cancercare.