MedStar Montgomery offers cancer care options close to home

by Terri Hogan

Senior Staff Writer

As MedStar Montgomery Medical Center marks the 100th anniversary of the Olney hospital, it is opening its new Breast Health and Imaging Center and Outpatient Oncology Center to offer options on cancer prevention and care close to the local community.

Both centers will be located on the campus of MedStar Montgomery Medical Center (MMMC) in Olney.

The new Breast Health and Imaging Center will serve patients with cancerous and non-cancerous breast conditions from prevention to treatment.

“This is a big deal for this wonderful community,” Dr. Dawn Leonard, Breast Health Program site director, said.

Leonard, who grew up in Olney and attended Sherwood High School, said she was recruited to build the program.

“The administration recognized that there was a hole that needed to be filled,” she said. “It’s long overdue. As a community hospital, this is something we need to provide.”

The center emphasizes total care – preventive care, advanced treatments and follow-through care by a specialized interdisciplinary team, hospital officials say.

“A breast cancer diagnosis is unexpected and is impacted by so many variables, so our priority is treating the whole patient, well beyond the cancer,” Leonard. “We’re proud of what this means for our ability to continue providing comprehensive and integrated care that is critical to our community.”

The new center will offer state-of-the-art technology delivered in a comfortable environment without having to travel far from home, officials say.

That includes the addition of the SmartCurve Breast Stabilization System, a new technology that is shaped like a woman’s breast and clinically proven to deliver a more comfortable and accurate mammogram, hospital officials report.

A more comfortable experience helps to eliminate the pain barrier that prevents many women from receiving regular breast exams, officials say.

The Breast Health and Imaging Center will offer a variety of preventative care and treatment options, including digital screening and diagnostic mammography, 3D mammography, breast Ultrasound and MRI, breast surgery and reconstruction, genetic counseling and testing, imaging-guided breast biopsy, multi-disciplinary breast cancer management and survivor support.

Leonard said the ultimate goal is to expand services to create “one-stop shopping” to ease the burden of patients returning for multiple appointments.

The expansion of MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute brings a comprehensive, patient-focused Outpatient Oncology Center to MMMC, hospital officials say.

“With an increasing amount of cancer care provided in the outpatient setting, which is expected to grow over the next decade, the opening of this new cancer center is imperative,” Dr. Luther Ampey, director of MedStar Montgomery’s Cancer Center, says in a press release. “We believe everyone should have access to top doctors and treatment options where they live, without the need to travel far from home.”

The Outpatient Oncology Center at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center will provide treatments, including chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation therapy, skin cancer procedures and cancer rehabilitation.

“We are eager to use the centers’ resources to reach more patients in the region,” Thomas J. Senker, MedStar Montgomery Medical Center president, says in a press release. “Bringing the expertise of MedStar Health cancer care into our community-based hospital allows us to develop tailored, world-class treatment that provides our patients with the best possible care right here in Montgomery County.”

MedStar Montgomery began seeing patients in the Outpatient Oncology Center in July and will welcome patients to the Breast Health and Imaging Center later this month.

The hospital is also honoring breast cancer survivors, their families, caregivers and those who have lost their battle through its “Pink with a Purpose” ribbon project.

Supporters are invited to honor their loved ones by adding a pink ribbon to a 10-foot ribbon-shaped display at community events.

   For more on the new Oncology Center, visit www.medstarhealth.org/ads/mmmc-outpatient-oncology-center.

   For more on Breast Cancer Care in MMMC’s Breast Health and Imaging Center, visit: https://www.medstarhealth.org/ads/mmmc-breast-health-program-cancer-care.