Cancer Centers of North Carolina buys WROS from Wake Radiology

Cancer Centers of North Carolina (CCNC), an affiliate of the United Network of US Oncology and the first practice to offer community-based outpatient cancer care in the Triangle with locations in Raleigh, North Raleigh, Cary, Dunn and Clayton, has purchased Wake Radiology Oncology Services (WROS) from Wake Radiology, the oldest and largest multi-site radiology group in central North Carolina.

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WROS is the Triangle's first free-standing, full-service, outpatient radiation therapy center. The facility is equipped with a Siemens PRIMUS linear accelerator, the only linear accelerator in Cary, N.C. and the second radiation therapy machine operated by the CCNC practice. The linear accelerator is computer-controlled and connected to a computer network that monitors and verifies every aspect of each patient's treatment to ensure maximum accuracy. Most patients are treated with daily doses over a long period; this computer technology ensures that each daily treatment is precisely reproduced.

Linear accelerators produce x-rays and electrons with a wide range of energies that are optimal for many cancer treatments including tumors on the surface (such as skin cancers) and deep-seated tumors (such as cancers of the prostate and lung). Adding WROS's services to Cancer Centers of North Carolina expands CCNC's radiation oncology services to two sites, Cary and Raleigh, so that patients have greater access to integrated cancer care close to home and close to their support systems of family and friends. Integrated cancer care brings medical oncologists and radiation oncologists together for better, more collaborative patient care and an improved patient experience.

WROS radiation oncologists, Andrew Kennedy, M.D. and Scott Sailer, M.D., will continue to provide care in their current location at WROS as part of the medical staff of CCNC and will join radiation oncologists John Reilly, M.D. and Kolby Sidhu, M.D., and the fourteen other oncologists from CCNC. Wake Radiology Oncology Services has been in operation for more than a decade. Patient care will not be interrupted and patients will have the opportunity to continue care as before.

Patients in the Cary, N.C. area will benefit from this merger through the increased resources and integrated care available through their physicians. Dr. Alan Kritz, CCNC Practice President said, "The addition of this state-of-the-art radiation oncology practice with its two excellent physicians continues to demonstrate Cancer Centers of North Carolina's leadership and commitment to community oncology in Wake County and beyond."

In joining Cancer Centers of North Carolina, Drs. Kennedy and Sailer will have access the vast resources of the United Network of US Oncology, one of the nation's largest networks of community-based oncologists dedicated to providing patients with access to cancer research and high-quality, evidence-based cancer care in local communities throughout the U.S. Through the United Network of US Oncology, oncologists have access to physician-to-physician collaboration via The Oncology Portal and face-to-face networking opportunities, nationwide leadership roles, evidence-based medicine pathways, cancer research including Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) clinical trials, and healthcare information technology such as the oncology-specific electronic health record system iKnowMed™ and Lynx® Mobile technology. US Oncology is a division of McKesson Corporation, a leader in healthcare solutions.

Drs. Kennedy and Sailer are experts in cancers of the head, neck and liver, in particular, and Dr. Kennedy is a leading expert in the infusion of microspheres, a highly specialized radiation treatment for liver cancer patients who have few options. This revolutionary treatment involves delivery of miniscule-size beads of glass, called microspheres that have been coated with the radiation source Yttrium-90. The beads are so small it would take three side-by-side to equal the width of a human hair. These microspheres are infused directly into the cancerous areas of the liver.

The radioactive microspheres are delivered by a catheter through the hepatic artery (the main supplier of blood to the liver) to the arterial section of the liver. The microspheres become permanently implanted in the cancerous tumor where they slowly release radiation over a period of approximately 14 days. The radiation in each bead is quite powerful, but does not have a wide range of exposure. This helps the microspheres to attack only the deadly tumor, and not the healthy organ. Dr. Kennedy has played a lead role in developing the procedure worldwide.