(March 9, 2022) Long Branch, NJ –Monmouth Medical Center (MMC), an RWJBarnabas Health facility, has unveiled a new tomotherapy suite featuring a significant equipment upgrade that is providing the latest highly advanced radiation therapy in a calming, patient-centered environment.
MMC first began offering tomotherapy—image-guided radiation therapy—more than a decade ago, reflecting the hospital’s leadership in advanced cancer treatment. Today, MMC remains at the forefront of cancer innovation with the latest highly advanced radiation therapy, the Radixact tomotherapy system, which allows for even more precise cancer treatment. Combining radiation treatment with computed tomography (CT) scans, tomotherapy provides 3D images capturing the exact location of a tumor, which can then be precisely targeted with cancer-destroying radiation beams.
“Utilizing tomotherapy, we can optimally deliver doses to the cancer but minimal radiation to normal tissues around it,” said radiation oncologist Sang Sim, MD, a member of RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group. “Each patient has their own individualized treatment plan that defines how the machine delivers radiation to treat their cancer.”
The level of precision the new unit offers allows radiation oncologists to deliver stronger, higher doses in fewer sessions without increasing damage to healthy tissue. As small changes in tissue positions can occur due to factors such as normal organ shifts, fullness or emptiness of the bladder or rectum, or tumor shrinkage after previous radiation sessions, the new unit’s ability to allow oncologists to review the anatomy in real time and adjust the treatment plan accordingly within minutes results in better targeting of the cancer and minimized short and long-term side effects.
“Normally, we make a plan and treat the patient with that plan,” said Mitchell Weiss, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology, Monmouth Medical Center and a member of RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group. “The new unit now allows us to also review the anatomy—both healthy tissue and tumor—while the patient is on the table and in minutes adjust the plan if the anatomy has changed in any way.”
The newly renovated tomotherapy unit also features a calming décor that includes an array of small ceiling lights which creates an effect similar to a starry night sky allowing patients to relax while receiving their treatment.
RWJBarnabas Health and Monmouth Medical Center, in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey—the state’s only NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center—provide close-to-home access to the most advanced treatment options. For more information, call 844-CANCERNJ or visit www.rwjbh.org/beatcancer.
About Monmouth Medical Center
Monmouth Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) facility, along with The Unterberg Children’s Hospital, is a regional teaching campus for Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. As the first hospital in Monmouth and Ocean counties, Monmouth Medical Center offers the most experienced surgeons in robotics and other minimally invasive procedures as well as bariatric and joint and spine surgery. Monmouth Medical Center delivers more babies annually than all other hospitals in Monmouth and Ocean counties combined and the fourth most in the state. The hospital offers access to the region’s top cardiologists and the award-winning, nationally recognized RWJBarnabas Heart Centers. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has conferred Magnet® recognition for Monmouth Medical Center, one of just 509 U.S. health care organizations out of more than 6,300 U.S. hospitals to achieve Magnet recognition. It is the only hospital in Monmouth and Ocean counties to consistently receive an “A” Hospital Safety Score by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit organization has been named a Leapfrog Top Teaching Hospital for a third time. RWJBarnabas Health and Monmouth Medical Center, in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey — the state's only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center — brings a world class team of researchers and specialists to fight alongside patients, providing close-to-home access to the latest treatment and clinical trials.