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>> So the American Cancer Society has a statistic that 1
in 2 people in their lifetime will develop cancer.
So we at El Camino Hospital as a community hospital needs
to address the illnesses of the people that live
in our community and cancer will be - if it's not already -
a big, part of people's lives.
So we notice that many
of our patients are leaving our community and not staying home
with their loved ones and their family at a time
when it's very stressful to them, that we needed
to provide better services in the division of cancer
to our patients and to their families.
So we brought together a team of professionals here
at El Camino Hospital that are board certified
cancer specialists.
And we brought them in, in surgery, in medical oncology,
pathology, radiation oncology and radiology
to serve the needs of these patients.
And we brought them in to our environment - which is a caring
and compassionate environment -
so that what you feel is you feel the warmth
of the community hospital paired
with the extraordinary physicians who are dedicated
to just taking care of cancer patients.
What people don't seem to understand is that only
about 25 % of the patients are cared
for in the academic medical center:
75 % of cancer patients are treated
in the community hospital.
So if you wish to have really excellent care,
it starts with the physician and it starts with a team
of physicians that communicate with each other.
What we've got together here is not a set of disparate positions
in disparate locations.
We've got together a team of professionals
that are board certified in taking care of cancer patients.
So there's the medical oncologist,
a radiation oncologist, a surgical oncologist, surgeons,
pathologists, radiologists: all of who are dedicated
to taking care of the patient.
We have weekly conferences where we discuss complicated patients.
We -- our offices are adjacent to each other.
We talk to each other every single day
about our whole collection of patients.
And for the patient, what that means is
that you're getting multiple opinions on how their --
our care proceeds without the patient leaving the community.
As we have invested in your care, we've acquired some
of the most advanced technologies here
at El Camino Hospital such as the DaVinci Robot.
And the DaVinci Robot allows us to do gynecologic
and urologic surgery with much better precision and accuracy.
The CyberKnife which is the newest tool in the [inaudible]
of radiation oncology is a tool
to specifically deliver radiation
to a very concentrated place.
So for brain tumors, for lung tumors,
for some intra-abdominal tumors that are not amendable
to surgery and chemotherapy,
CyberKnife is the tool of choice.
The brachytherapy options are also multiple for breast
and prostate and some of the other --
for some other cancers for which there needs
to be a localized dose of radiation provided.
We have invested a lot of time and effort
to provide you the latest treatments.
And the latest treatments are not only medications
or radiation or types of surgery, but we have an offering
of clinical trials so that the newest drugs
in the pipeline are available to you and the newest ways
of treating cancer is available to you.
So far we have 11 trials open.
There are an additional 6 that in process.
And we have an ongoing effort to evaluate what's important
for patients and to provide them with the latest --
the latest information and the latest experimental offerings
so that they don't have to leave their community.
All of those treatments can be provided here.
We have tried very hard to make the resources come
to the patient and not the patient to the resources.
So the cancer center's a destination.
It's a place where you go when you have cancer.
And we will take care of all of the details.
So when you walk in the front door
of the cancer center, someone greets you.
Someone says hello.
Someone knows your name.
When you call the cancer center, there's an informed
and experienced person on the phone to answer your questions,
to take care of your symptoms, to help you work
through you appointments.
We understand that this is a stressful time for you.
We understand that we know more about taking care of all
of the details than you do at this point, and so we want you
to give us the responsibility of taking care of you
in an integrated, coordinated fashion.
So our mission is to take care of your cancer, but it's also
to take care of you and to make sure that you understand
that there's a person and there's a family
and there's a whole lifetime that has to be lived
within the context of having cancer.
And we're here to make sure that that works for you.
And we know that chemotherapy and surgery
and radiation is not easy.
We understand all of the issues that are surrounding it.
And we have people to help you.
We have specifically designed patient navigators
and concierges to help you to work
through all the different things that come
up in the course of your treatment.
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