About the series
Today: The Atrium Medical Center Foundation raising millions for cancer treatment, caregiver amenities.
Monday: A closer look at Infusion therapy.
Tuesday: Radiation therapy curing 50 percent of patients today.
MIDDLETOWN — A cancer diagnosis can be difficult enough to bear, but thanks to millions of dollars of investments residents don’t have to travel far from home for treatment.
They can find it at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown.
Debbie Gibson, manager of the infusion center at Atrium, said it’s difficult to describe the emotions and changes for someone with a cancer diagnosis.
“It’s like you are fighting the biggest fight,” she said.
And thanks to Atrium’s state-of-the-art programing, residents can fight that fight without traveling miles out of town to a big metropolitan hospital.
Since moving to its site near Interstate 75 in December 2007, the Compton Center Atrium has expanded its cancer treatment services. It offers radiation therapies, including image guided and intensity modulated radiation therapy; infusion therapy, including chemotherapy; robot-assisted surgery and more than 150 clinical trials. And all of the nurses in the Compton Center are oncology-certified, according to hospital officials.
“In cancer care the competition is all around — from Dayton to Cincinnati to all the special cancer centers,” Gibson said. “But for the most part, we have what you need right here.”
Jack Fox, 69, who is being treated for prostate cancer, said the decision to stay local was easy.
“This place is more like a family,” the Monroe resident said. “You don’t have to be big, or be located in a big city, to be a good hospital. I don’t have one bad word to say about them.”
This three-part series will examine the cancer services in Middletown to help you decide treatment for you or a loved one can be found close to home.
Staff Writer Rick McCrabb contributed to this report.
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