New machine already paying dividends for UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
Just months after it was installed at Benbrook Medical Center in May, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center’s a new linear accelerator machine already is paying dividends when it comes to treating cancer patients in Butler County.
The Elekta Versa HD is the newest weapon in the arsenal at the center’s Butler location, which opened in 2013 as a joint venture between UPMC and what then was Butler Health System.
Five months into its introduction, the machine, which aims high-energy X-rays at the precise area of a cancer, has been instrumental in hundreds of cancer radiation treatments. UPMC spokesperson Karen Beardsley said the Versa HD has delivered 1,767 treatments as of the end of August, an average of 20 to 25 per day.
According to Dr. Veronica Eisen, a radiation oncologist at UPMC Hillman in Butler, the machine has cut treatment time to less than a third of what it once was, and drastically reduced patient load as a result.
“There are some treatments that used to take 45 minutes that now take 10 minutes,” Eisen said. “Having a much shorter treatment time is really a major quality-of-care and quality-of-life improvement for patients.”
The Elektra Versa HD replaced a previous linear accelerator machine which Eisen said was considerably less advanced.
“ (The new machine) has more modern equipment, so it can deliver treatments much faster and more precisely,” Eisen said. “We can now deliver treatments that we weren't able to in the past. We're now able to deliver more precise treatments.”
It takes an entire team to operate the machine. To be specific, Beardsley said, the machine is surrounded by a staff of nine: a radiation oncologist, a medical physicist, a chief radiation therapist and three other radiation therapists, a dosimetrist, and two registered nurses. Two financial counselors are also part of the team.
“It takes a whole team of highly trained staff members to ensure high-quality, precision treatments to every single patient,” Beardsley said.
The Benbrook Medical Center is just one of dozens of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center locations throughout Pennsylvania, along with sites in western Maryland, eastern Ohio, and Jamestown, N.Y. Eisen said the presence of the new linear accelerator prevents cancer patients from driving long distances to receive much-needed treatment.
“The closest (linear accelerator) is 25 miles away, and the other closest one is about 45 miles away,” Eisen said. “So we do have patients who travel as far as 20 to 25 miles to come see us and sometimes 30 miles.”
“UPMC Hillman Cancer Center has 80 treatment sites because we know that patients need to be close to home,” Beardsley said. “It was important for us to add this LINAC here because in radiation oncology, most of our patients are treated for consecutive days over several weeks. We want to ensure that we are offering this care in an area where we know we have a need and so that patients do not have to travel far.”
