EvergreenHealth's Halvorson Cancer Center
The inspiring evening supports the greatest need at EvergreenHealth and this year’s beneficiary, the Halvorson Cancer Care Center. Proceeds will fund the purchase of a new high-precision TrueBeam machine to enable EvergreenHealth to continue to provide the next generation Radiation Oncology treatment for all of our patients, families, and loved ones for many years to come.
Investing in Evergreen Cancer Center – Funding a new TrueBeam for high-precision Radiation Oncology Treatment
Approximately 50% of patients with a new cancer diagnosis receive radiation therapy as part of their treatment plan. Due to advances in research and linear accelerator technology, the number of treatments needed per patient has declined in the past 10 years, reducing the burden to patients. New treatment approaches often escalate the radiation dose to the tumor while decreasing radiation doses to normal tissue near the tumor, yielding better outcomes for the patients. To realize these ongoing improvements for our patients, EvergreenHealth Cancer Center and Radiation Oncology must upgrade our linear accelerator model to one that has the latest advance image guidance tools to deliver radiation safely and precisely to the tumor every time.
Within the EvergreenHealth Halvorson Cancer Center, we have two linear accelerators. In 2008, we were able to improve the safety and quality for our patients, by replacing an older linear accelerator with newer technology, the TRILOGY. However, after 13 years, the technology gap between the TRILOGY and the other TRUEBEAM, has become too extensive and we are no longer able to use both machines efficiently to meet our patient care goals. Replacing our TRIOLOGY machine, with a second TRUEBEAM, will enable us to continue to provide next generation radiation oncology for all our patients we care for in our community for years to come.