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Treatments will come closer to home

Two new radiation units arrived in Prince George this week, bringing the region closer to offering this cancer therapy in our own back yard.

Two new radiation units arrived in Prince George this week, bringing the region one step closer to offering another kind of cancer therapy in our own back yard.

The Cancer Centre for the North being built in Prince George will be assembling the two linear accelerators that  are used in radiation treatment.

“It’s been a really exciting week,” cancer strategy spokesperson Sonya Kruger said, “(the units) will mean we’ll be offering a new service in the North.”

The machines are important purchases for the health care of locals, as patients from this area needing radiation treatment always had to travel outside the region.

“Before if you needed this service you had to travel down south,” the cancer strategy spokesperson said.

The radiation units were purchased as part of the new cancer centre in coordination with the regional cancer control strategy. The strategy aims to achieve a number of important goals for the northern health region Kruger said.

“This is a result of the  partnership between the B.C.  cancer agency, the provincial health services and Northern Health,” Kruger noted.

The spanking new units came in over 30 pieces and they need to be put together and then will be set up and tested before the centre opens later this year.

“They’ll start delivering treatment to patients when the centre opens in late 2012,” Kruger explained, “right now they need to be programmed and tested by the medical physics team ... to make sure they’ll be ready to provide safe and affective treatment.”

The cancer centre and strategy is not just about treatment, Kruger elaborated.

 

“The strategy is meant to enhance cancer services all across the north, and it’s for prevention, screening, diagnosis, all the way through to patient support. The centre is a really key part of that.”