When the Doctor Says I have Cancer

By Dr. Elquis Castillo 
 
 
When a patient with a diagnosis of cancer confronts this reality they are usually overrun by emotional feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty. Most of the time the patient is surrounded by loved ones who will come, one at a time, with different recommendations on how to handle this situation. This situation could be overwhelming for the individual who is trying to make decisions on how to proceed after the diagnosis of cancer.

Locally we have been able to have a multidisciplinary team of doctors who can address most of the patient's needs and questions at one location. At the Gadsden Regional Cancer Center we have a combination of radiation oncologists and medical oncologists who are experienced physicians, highly trained to provide for the patient confirmation of diagnosis, a treatment plan, and plans for rehabilitation for cancer care.

We have an informal network of physicians who stay in close contact even when they are not present in the same physical location and a conference is usually held between the surgeons, pathologists, and radiologists before a final treatment recommendation is given to the patient. For cases that have a major complexity and a rare diagnosis of cancer we have a network of support that relies on national experts who are consulted before doing your treatment planning.

Usually we have two kinds of patients, the patients who want to get standard treatment and are not interested in new medications or treatment for cancer and, on the other side, we have patients who want to have the opportunity to be treated with any experimental therapy that could have a potential advantage in the management of their disease.

For these patients, Dr. Castillo, who is a medical oncologist, has established a system by means of which patients can be screened for research protocols available at the University Medical Center at UAB in Birmingham. The data about the patient can be entered into an Internet linked computer here in Gadsden that automatically will tell us which experimental therapies are available for the patient.

In many cases, if those are available, they can be given at the local level without the patient having to travel outside of town. Currently Dr. Castillo is a co-investigator in research protocol for patients with cancer.  This guarantees us that we are staying on the leading edge of cancer care providing state of the art treatment at home.

Any questions about cancer care in the community can be directed to our phone number which is 256-494-4965 and the call will be directed to one of our physician specialists in the area.