St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center is seeking to add an additional therapy to its services for patients who are battling cervical cancer.
On Aug. 23, St. Francis, which is part of Trinity Health of New England, submitted a certificate of need application to the state Office of Health Strategy to add a treatment called intracavitary high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy.
The hospital already provides external beam radiation therapy at its main campus, at 114 Woodland St., and the proposal would expand its cervical cancer treatment services.
With intracavitary high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, medical staff put a radioactive source inside a patient close to the cervical tumor.
“This means that the tumor gets a large amount of radiation, while nearby healthy tissue gets less radiation and is less likely to be damaged,” the application states.
According to the hospital, this can be a more effective treatment path for patients who have cervical cancer. It plans to use Iridium-192 as the radioactive source during brachytherapy.
“With the addition of this program, we can provide comprehensive treatment for cervical cancer patients, improving their quality of life and outcomes,” the application states.
When St. Francis has patients who physicians believe would benefit from this approach, it has had to transfer them to other hospitals. Offering this additional service will make it more convenient for these patients, according to St. Francis.
The hospital indicated that adding this procedure requires a software license upgrade for its existing equipment, rather than additional equipment, and it listed the total project cost as $0.
The Office of Health Strategy is reviewing the application.
