Technology

It may surprise some people that the most advanced diagnostic technology and high-tech cancer therapies available anywhere are available right here, at the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center. But it doesn’t surprise us, because the desire to provide cutting edge diagnostic tools is what drives us in everything we do.

Diagnostic Radiology/Nuclear Medicine

Middlesex Hospital’s Radiology Department offers sophisticated diagnostic technologies equal to any academic medical center. The Department offers:

  • PET
  • CT
  • MRI scans
  • Mammography utilizing CAD enhancement
  • Stereotactic breast biopsy
  • Bone densitometry
  • Ultrasound
  • Nuclear medicine scanner featuring three-dimensional anatomical mapping technology.

We were also the first community hospital in the state to offer Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning, which uses high-energy isotopes to detect early stage cancers.

Radiation Oncology

If radiation therapy is prescribed as part of your treatment plan, you will be referred to a doctor who specializes in radiation therapy, a radiation oncologist. During your therapy, you may benefit from Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center's state-of-the-art Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) linear accelerator. Unlike older devices, the exceptional precision of the IMRT enables it to deliver higher doses of radiation to your tumor, while sparing the surrounding normal tissue. This makes it particularly effective for difficult-to-treat tumors in the neck, spine or lung.

Radiation oncologists work closely with our radiation physicist and dosimetrist to develop a treatment plan which delivers the prescribed dose to the tumor while protecting nearby healthy tissues and structures. This plan is assured even before treatment begins. The first step is a treatment simulation that sets the patient’s position for treatment, verifies the dose to be given and received in that position. The physicist and radiation oncologist must approve the plan before treatment begins. At this time, you will also meet the radiation therapists who will give your treatment each day. Treatment may be as brief as two weeks or as extended as six weeks.

Our experienced, highly qualified Radiation Oncologists can provide you with more information about your specific course of treatment.