Medical Services • Cancer Services

Putting the latest in medical advances to work for you

At NCH, you'll find the caring environment, easy access and personalized services you expect from a community hospital plus the state-of-the-art technology you would find in a teaching hospital.

We are committed to advanced technology because it offers safer and more effective treatment for you. These technologies provide greater precision, less pain, faster recovery and a lower risk of side effects.

Advanced technologies – combining earlier detection and better treatment results with fewer risks

Among the advanced technologies available at NCH for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer are:

• da Vinci® Surgical System – the gold standard for minimally invasive surgery. This breakthrough technology allows a surgeon to view 3-D images of the surgical field while sitting at a state-of-the-art computer console. Hand, wrists and finger movements are translated into precise robotic arm movements. This gives surgeons greater precision and the patient experiences less pain, fewer side effects and a shorter hospital stay. We are one of the few hospitals in the area to offer this new technology.
• CyberKnife® Stereotactic Radiosurgery System (SRS) – a non-invasive alternative to surgery. It uses an extremely accurate, computer-controlled robotic arm to target tumors with high-dose radiation. We were the first hospital in the Chicago area to offer this groundbreaking technology.
• BARRX HALO³⁶⁰ Ablation System – innovative, non-surgical treatment for Barrett’s Esophagus, a precancerous condition affecting the lining of the esophagus. HALO Ablation Therapy uses radiofrequency electrodes to remove or destroy pre-cancerous cells, thus reducing the risk of developing esophageal cancer.
• Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) – radiation therapy that delivers a finely tuned dose of radiation, precisely tailored to match the tumor in three dimensions, while leaving the surrounding tissue relatively untouched.
• Low Dose Rate (LDR) Brachytherapy – an extremely effective method for treating early-stage prostate cancers. Unlike external beam radiation, which delivers a high dose of radiation from outside the body, this technique is a low energy type of radiation therapy. Tiny radioactive devices called seeds are implanted permanently inside the tumor to kill cancer cells. This minimizes radiation exposure to healthy surrounding tissue. On average, 60 to 120 seeds, each smaller than a grain of rice, are placed in the prostate gland. The low energy isotopes used in the seeds lose their radioactivity quickly.
• High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy – placing very tiny plastic catheters into the prostate gland to deliver the radioactive seeds and then giving a series of radiation treatments through these catheters. The catheters are then easily pulled out, and no radioactive material is left in the prostate gland.
• Computerized Tomographic Radiotherapy Simulator (CT-SIM) – accurately targets cancerous tumors with radiation while sparing the surrounding tissue.
• Accelerated Partial Breast Conservation (APBI) – allows more patients to conserve their breasts, avoid mastectomy and complete their local therapy in less than two weeks.
  
• External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) – one of the primary treatments for patients with localized or locally advanced prostate cancer.
• Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D-CRT) – use of computerized tomography to generate 3D images of internal anatomy. Sophisticated computer software then uses these images to target the tumors.