Cancer Treatment

Pardee's Cancer Center strives to bring the highest level of expertise and experience to cancer treatment. Our multidisciplinary team includes board-certified oncologists, hematologists and radiation oncologists, surgeons who specialize in cancer surgery, and oncology-certified nurses and clinicians.

We offer the following cancer treatment services:

Hematology and Oncology

Our board-certified hematologists and oncologists specialize in treating cancer and blood disorders with advanced, personalized treatments, including:

• Chemotherapy
• Immunotherapy/Biotherapy
• Blood transfusions
• Intravenous (IV) infusions, delivered by certified infusion nurses, for complementary therapy during chemotherapy

Our Infusion Center for oncology patients is housed in Pardee Cancer Center and is open weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Radiation Oncology

If radiation oncology is part of your recommended cancer treatment, a team of highly trained professionals will work together to make sure you receive excellent care, while keeping your radiation dosage low and achieving the most effective treatment.

A board-certified radiation oncologist, a doctor who specializes in using radiation therapy to treat cancer, will lead your care team. The rest of your care team will include:

• Licensed, registered nurses
• Board-certified radiation therapists
• Board-certified dosimetrists
• Board-certified medical physicists

In addition to our caring, compassionate and skilled radiation therapy team, we offer high-tech equipment that helps us safely and effectively deliver radiation treatments to your cancer, while sparing surrounding areas. Our linear accelerator targets cancerous cells with pinpoint precision, and our robotic treatment table helps position you to minimize the impact on healthy cells.

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)

Pardee has invested in an advanced form of cancer treatment called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which is an advanced form of cancer treatment that is safe and effective for patients with early-stage lung cancer and early-stage prostate cancer who are not candidates for surgery. SBRT is delivered through a linear accelerator and precisely treats tumors with high doses of radiation, destroying cancer cells while reducing exposure to healthy tissue. Most patients need far fewer treatments than when using conventional radiation.

Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy

Hypofractionated radiation therapy can be used to treat breast cancer and prostate cancer. For our breast cancer patients, this type of treatment allows them to complete radiation in four weeks instead of six weeks. Prostate cancer patients can receive the recommended therapy in 28 treatments versus the usual 45, reducing treatment time from nine weeks to five-and-a-half weeks. Not only is this method more convenient for patients, but it has also been shown to be effective. Consult your provider for more information about hypofractionated radiation therapy.

Cancer Surgery

Our board-certified surgeons specialize in treating specific cancers and play a key role in diagnosis and treatment. They provide safe, advanced surgical cancer care in a caring environment. What’s more, we have a fellowship-trained breast surgeon who specializes in the surgical treatment of breast cancer. Learn more about surgery at Pardee.

Clinical Trials

Cancer research is an important component of our cancer program. Many cancer treatments used today are the result of research that involved clinical trials. These include the development of cures for childhood acute leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease and testicular cancer.

Clinical trials are available for all stages of cancer and are designed to:

• • • • Test new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer
      • Manage symptoms or side effects from treatment
      • Extend disease-free survival
      • Improve quality of life

Cancer Research

Partnerships

At Pardee Cancer Center, our physicians and staff are committed to providing additional treatment options to increase chances for overcoming cancer, while allowing patients to remain close to home. Through our partnership with Southeast Clinical Oncology Research Consortium (SCOR), we are one of only three medical centers in western North Carolina to offer cancer clinical trials, providing more than 50 National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trials on average to our community. Moreover, our affiliation with UNC Health and the UNC Cancer Network allows us to provide additional research and treatment options to our patients.

Research Team

The research team at Pardee Cancer Center is made up of nurses who are certified in clinical research and oncology nursing with extensive backgrounds in ethics and safety. The Research Office houses Pardee’s Institutional Review Board, which reviews and approves research involving humans and works closely with physicians and staff to ensure patient rights and safety are maintained.