CentraState Unveils Upgraded Radiation Oncology Suite

A cancer diagnosis can be a traumatic moment in a patient’s life, but the Cancer Center team at believes the treatment process doesn’t have to be.

CentraState unveiled a $10-million, 11,500-square-foot Radiation Oncology Suite in its Freehold Township campus on Thursday.

“Here patients and their families will find a thoughtfully designed and soothing environment. They will benefit from ready access to an expert clinic team and advanced technologies,” said John T. Gribbin, president of CentraState Healthcare System.

The technological advancements include the addition of a new linear accelerator, which allows doctors to target the radiation therapy on a tumor more effectively and in a shorter period of time. The patient table for the linear accelerator is able to tilt and twist to further assist doctors in delivering a targeted dose of radiation, according to Dr. Ed Soffen, chair of Radiation Oncology at CentraState.

“On our old machine one of these complicated treatments would take 20 to 25 minutes,” Soffen said. “These treatments are given in five to 10 minutes, which means there is less chance for patients to move and there’s less chance for the tumor in the patient to move.”

The Radiation Oncology Suite also includes a new CT scanner, which displays in four dimensions and allows doctors to better plan radiation treatments with the linear accelerator.

“Not only do we see tumors height, width and depth, but also how they move in the patient, which also makes our targeting more exact,” Soffen said. “We don’t want the tumor to move in and out of the beam while the machine is on. We want the beam to track it.”

The sophisticated CT scanner also allows the Cancer Center team to treat patients more quickly. Radiation Therapist Cheryl Bottega said the wide-bore CT scanner can finish within 20 or 30 minutes, whereas the previous machine would take up to an hour. Patients don’t have to lie still as long, Bottega said, and they get to receive their treatments and tests in a more comfortable environment.

“It’s exciting, of course, for us because there’s so much that we can do now, but even for the patients to come in to such a beautiful place where it’s calm and relaxing and there’s all this room,” Bottega said.

The new Radiation Oncology Suite represents the significant strides the department has made since it first opened at CentraState a decade ago, Soffen noted.

“From the start, we offered the most advanced radiation therapy treatments available and the services of a highly trained and respected physician team,” Soffen said. “Patient volume quickly exceeded initial projections and has doubled in the last 10 years, so this expansion allows us to continue to meet our mission.”