SEQUIM — Two large and heavy prefabricated sections for Olympic Medical Cancer Center’s temporary cancer radiation treatment center slowly rolled into the city on flatbed trucks last week.
The units make up a temporary radiotherapy vault by Aventura, Fla.-based RAD Technology LLC.
The vault will operate until the cancer center decommissions and dismantles its previous linear accelerator and vault to construct the vault required to house the Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator, which uses a more precise radiation technology for treating cancer patients.
The Sequim center is the only cancer treatment center on the North Olympic Peninsula — and the new Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator — developed in Palo Alto, Calif. — is the first such technology in the Pacific Northwest, OMC Cancer Center officials said.
The new building and linear accelerator are scheduled to be fully operational by April 15 after the accelerator is tested.
A tall crane last week lifted the temporary sections onto a site next to the hospital’s cancer center on North Fifth Avenue in Sequim.
The old facility and treatment technology will be removed Jan. 10, and a new permanent center will be built for the $2.7 million linear accelerator.
“It’s a big investment,” said Eric Lewis, Olympic Medical Center administrator and chief executive officer, adding that it will give the hospital’s Sequim cancer center the edge in providing a world-class facility.
The technology will allow radiation oncologists to treat tumors with a high dose of radiation to a precise location without damaging surrounding tissue.
A $225,000-per-year maintenance contract for the new machine will run from 2012 to 2015.
“Our goal was to bring the latest radiotherapy technology to the cancer patients we serve,” said Dr. Rena Zimmerman, medical director of radiation oncology at the OMC Cancer Center.
“Thanks to RAD’s transitional unit, we can maintain our patient-centered focus by continuing to provide care as we upgrade our facility.”
The temporary portable building — which is equipped with a pre-installed linear accelerator and state-of-the-art radiation shielding technology — will provide an efficient and effective solution to managing patient treatments during the upgrade process, Zimmerman said.
The temporary facility is being rented for $450,000 for three months so the cancer center can continue treatments without interruption, Lewis said.
“We can’t stop treating cancer for 90 days or tell people to go elsewhere,” he said.
Between 20 and 40 Peninsula patients are treated daily by a linear accelerator.
The temporary RAD system duplicates the cancer center’s processes in a compact and temporary package, allowing patient treatments to continue as the new treatment system is installed.
OMC commissioners in September approved the temporary vault and linear accelerator to be used for three months during the removal of the old machine and installation of the new one.
Zimmerman in September said the difference between the new machine and the 8-year-old equipment at the cancer center is akin to the difference between 35 mm film and a digital camera.
The machine has a dose rate that is the highest available on the market, Zimmerman said, and it cuts down treatment time by 75 percent.
The new linear accelerator will enable doctors to perform stereotactic cancer therapy, a more precise delivery of radiation.
Stereotactic radiation treatment can be used for brain, liver and other forms of cancers.
The combination of the TrueBeam linear accelerator and the hospital’s new CT scanner also will allow for “gating,” hospital officials said.
Gating enables doctors to treat breast and other cancers without damaging nearby organs as a patient breathes and the tumor moves.
Hospital officials said Olympic Medical Center will share information about its new machine with Seattle Cancer Center, an affiliate.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
