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WellSpan advances cancer treatment with new partnership

Lenay Ruhl//November 17, 2016//

WellSpan advances cancer treatment with new partnership

Lenay Ruhl//November 17, 2016//

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WellSpan is collaborating with the University of Maryland on a venture that allows the health system’s doctors to treat patients at a new facility opened by the university in February, WellSpan announced this week.

The facility offers proton therapy, which is an image-guided therapy to treat cancer. WellSpan didn’t previously offer the service at its five cancer centers in Adams, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.

The radiation dose used in proton therapy better targets tumors, reducing exposure to radiation in surrounding healthy tissue, thereby reducing side effects and preventing damage to critical organs, according to officials at the treatment center.

Under the partnership, WellSpan physicians will be able work as adjuncts and use the technology at the $200 million facility in Baltimore, the Maryland Proton Treatment Center.

WellSpan physicians have been trained in the advanced treatment, health system spokeswoman Cindy Stauffer said.

The university hopes the treatment center serves as a regional resource for health care providers to collaborate, said Dr. William F. Regine, executive director of the treatment center.

WellSpan doctors will work with university faculty on radiation research.

“WellSpan Health is very excited to be one of the first collaborative partners with the new Maryland Proton Treatment Center,” said Dr. Douglas Arbittier, vice president of WellSpan’s oncology service line.