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Cancer Treatment Centers of America
was born from a son's love for his mother
and his unrelenting quest to save her life.
After the loss of my grandmother,
we sat down and said, what will it
take to actually change the face of cancer?
The mission is to take care of patients or the Mother
Standard.
What would you do if it was your father?
What would you do if it was your mother?
To take care of each patient as if it
was a member of my family, and it
makes practicing medicine as joyful as it's supposed to be.
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Cancer Treatment Centers of America
is a premiere cancer center spanning multiple locations
across the United States.
We practice multidisciplinary care,
which means we have, under one roof, all of the health
care providers that you would need
to take care of your cancer.
We have access to state-of-the-art drugs,
state-of-the-art clinical trials,
and some of the best precision medicine tools that are
available.
But in addition to that, we have the Mother's Standard.
We treat every patient the way you
would want your mother to be treated,
and that truly is unique.
Every one of our providers is truly an expert in cancer.
And that's not just our oncologists--
who you expect to be experts in cancer--
but that means our physical therapists,
our respiratory therapists, our mind-body counselors,
the people who manage the emotional impact
of this illness, our dietitians, our naturopaths.
We're practicing medicine under one roof, side by side.
We work together as a team.
So this is coordinated care, all together under one roof.
This is a new realm of medicine where
we're going to be able to increasingly focus
on the particular abnormality within a cancer
for an individual patient.
What makes it new and what makes it really exciting
is that we are now down to the molecular level.
We can literally look at the underpinnings of a cancer
and that individual patient.
Why does cancer grow?
Why does it spread?
Why is it resistant?
And so taking that information and then
being able to use that to select a therapy that's
more likely to help a patient.
And, of course, that means benefiting the patient more
in terms of the quality of their life
and the duration of their life than if we
weren't using this precision medicine strategy.
With genomic testing, we can find a mutation
that the cancer has that we can then exploit,
and we know based on the mutation if there
are any therapies that target the pathway
that that mutation's along.
That's our focus-- being more precise, more effective,
making sure we optimize the quality of life
for that patient during her or his journey with cancer.
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We have clinical trial which involve use of immunotherapy
along with chemotherapy, which have
been very important in understanding and treating
our patients.
Immune therapy is likely the future
of how we're going to treat cancer.
New drugs have now been designed to teach the immune system how
to see the cancer cells for what they
are so the immune system can actually do the job of killing
off those cells.
We have leaders in medical oncology.
We have leaders in radiation oncology,
and people who are really trying to push the envelope
and trying to change the paradigm of how we treat.
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There's a lot of other services besides just
the conventional chemo, radiation, and surgery
that we offer here at Cancer Treatment Centers of America
that help augment the patient's care.
Integrative cancer care is a model of care
that combines conventional cancer treatment
with supportive services like mind-body modalities,
nutrition, naturopathic, and spiritual support,
oncology rehabilitation, acupuncture,
and chiropractic care to help patients manage symptoms
and improve quality of life.
In an integrative care model, oncologists
and other physicians work collaboratively
with integrative or supportive care providers
like dietitians, physical therapists,
to help coordinate patients' care.
Integrative services can help patients
stay as strong as possible during cancer treatment
so they can complete their treatment plan
and have the best quality of life possible
in order to be able to continue their daily activities.
I knew that there was all these resources available for me
so that I could take advantage of them
when my cancer treatment got difficult.
My naturopath and nutritionist helped
me manage the side effects of my treatment
by teaching me how to eat the right foods
and take the right supplements.
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My name is Elaine Barber, and I'm a five-year cancer
survivor.
Being diagnosed with cancer made me rethink everything
in my life.
I had so many people at CTCA helping
me find a way to go through the treatments,
to prepare me for anything that I would have faced.
Cancer showed me what true living is all about.
When I came to Cancer Treatment Centers of America,
it was different--
2 and 1/2 hours with the team, my doctor.
He didn't get out of his chair until I
had everything answered.
You have people that really care.
They're my family now.
These people are saints.
They're saints.
With hospitals in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix,
and Tulsa, and outpatient care centers in Chicago, Phoenix,
and Dallas, the CTCA network provides convenient access
for patients from across the entire country.
Learn more at CancerCenter.com.
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