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Published on: 2/12/2004
Last Visited: 2/13/2004
Patients at the local cancer center can access up to 98 percent of the effective treatment options available in Portland, and all from the comfort of a closer and more arcadian medical facility, Dr. Ted Williamson told the McMinnville City Club on Tuesday.
Williamson, a radiation oncologist at Willamette Valley Medical Center, said patients might be tempted by the bells and whistles of big city hospitals, but would get no better care.
"Go on the Internet and read about radiation therapy and you're going to read about a lot of stuff we don't do," Williamson said.
But the doctor said there wasn't "a shred of proof" that any of the medical technologies employed elsewhere are any more effective than those at the local center."There is almost no reason to go to Portland," he said.
He said the choice to use proven and effective treatments rather than experiment with new and expensive ideas was deliberate.
"There is a responsibility while serving the community to not only look after their health interests but to look after their economic interests," he said.
He said the local cancer center - a $5.3 million project that began serving patients in the fall of 2002 - was built with realistic expectations.
One of the most important expectations is also one of the unhappiest: "Sometimes the best treatment is the least treatment," Williamson said."Sometimes it is a hug and a hand hold."
He took the group, more heavily fortified with seniors than usual, on a trip through the history of radiation treatment.
Williamson said advances in medical technology have not led to significant progress in controlling the disease itself.He said the marketing of cancer treatments has skewed many people's perceptions of what can be done.
What has significantly changed is the level of comfort given to cancer patients.Blessedly gone, for instance, are the days of full body radiation, electroshock therapy and other treatments whose side effects were sometimes worse than the disease itself.
In the arena of modern patient comfort, the local cancer center excels, Williamson said, citing the lack of crowded waiting rooms at his center as one example.
"People don't want to spend their life in the waiting room," he said."Especially if their life may already be shortened."
Williamson has practiced medicine in Salem for 25 years.He has been on the consulting staff at the McMinnville hospital for 18.
Since its opening two years ago, the center's medical staff has treated more than 600 individual patients.
Williamson ended his talk with a pitch for support of the Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation.
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