Heal Your Body, Ease Your Mind At the Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat
The medical community long has touted the importance of remaining positive and reducing stress while undergoing a cancer treatment program. Factors that make patients feel more positive include good relationships with their specialists, the people around them being positive and supportive, and having a pleasant environment.
(PRWEB) December 3, 2004
With this in mind, Carolina Regional Cancer Center (CRCC), of Myrtle Beach, S. C., has joined with Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc. to offer the Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat. The retreat, which is tailored to each patient's individual needs, includes quality cancer care at CRCC, accommodations at Burroughs & Chapin's Myrtlewood Villas, and special rates at selected golf, entertainment and dining venues along the Grand Strand.
"The Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat is the first of its kind and is unique in what it provides to cancer patients," Dr. Bass, CRCC clinical director, said. "Resorts often offer vacation packages that include physicals and spa treatments. The Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat pioneers the concept of offering radiotherapeutic treatment within a resort atmosphere."
The Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat is the first along the East Coast to combine top-notch radiotherapeutic treatment with a tranquil resort setting. This package is perfect for people living outside of the Myrtle Beach area who must undergo a radiation program and wish to do so in a safe, relaxing, and friendly environment. Everything a patient may need, from state-of-the-art medical treatment and quality cancer care to dining, shopping, entertainment, or just a relaxing walk on the beach, is mere minutes away.
CRCC also has coordinated with a number of area physicians, physical therapists, nutritionists, and spas to meet additional needs patients may have while undergoing radiation treatment. Some of the area's other top medical facilities are located close to CRCC, including the Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, which has been named one of the top 100 hospitals in the country for cardiovascular care. CRCC is centrally located to provide easy access from almost anywhere along the Grand Strand.
Myrtle Beach is a perfect winter get-away destination, as well as a wonderful place to summer. Sunny days, mild nights, and miles of golf courses and pristine beaches make Myrtle Beach an attractive location anytime. It is an easy drive from most East Coast cities and several airlines serve the area as well.
CRCC 's Cutting-edge Cancer Treatment Offers New Hope
CRCC is a health care facility that has been providing comprehensive radiotherapeutic services and treatments in Myrtle Beach for 24 years. CRCC is one of the few health care facilities in South Carolina that currently provides Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), recognized by radiation oncologists as the best technological advancement in radiation therapy in the past 30 years.
IMRT is a high-precision form of radiation therapy that delivers high doses of radiation to cancer cells, while minimizing the exposure of nearby healthy tissue, thus offering hope in previously hopeless cases. Because IMRT treatments are delivered with extreme precision, the exposure of healthy tissue is cut to a minimum and the side effects of the radiation are reduced; tumors are targeted and normal tissues are spared.
IMRT is responsible for dramatic improvements in the ability to treat tumors that previously may have been untreatable due to their size, shape or location. Using three-dimensional imaging and complex computer treatment planning, IMRT enables oncologists to shape the radiation beam, and modulate the radiation dose intensity within a given field.
Actual treatment time for IMRT is generally less than five minutes, after which the patient is free to spend the rest of the day as he chooses. Rather than staying cooped up in a hospital or pacing around the house, patients with the retreat package have seemingly limitless low-stress ways to enjoy the day – golf, shopping, strolling on the beach, enjoying fresh seafood, taking in live entertainment, and more!
In addition, the Myrtle Beach area is home to various cancer support groups that welcome participation, should the patient wish to talk with others who have undergone cancer treatment.
Just two blocks away from CRCC, the spacious Myrtlewood Villas offer guests a serene setting along the golf courses of Myrtlewood Golf Club. The villas feature numerous amenities to provide guests with the comforts of home and the luxury of Myrtlewood.
"We hope that the retreat's participants will find their stay along the Grand Strand as therapeutic as the treatments they undergo while they're here," Archie Lemon, golf operations director of Burroughs & Chapin Golf Management, said.
Accommodations are available on a monthly or two-week basis. Monthly rates begin at $750 for a one-bedroom villa and $850 for two bedrooms. Two-week rates begin at $500 for a one-bedroom villa and $650 for two bedrooms. Rates may vary depending on the time of year reservations are made. Family members who travel to be with a cancer patient during the term of treatment also can use the retreat's benefits and accommodations rates.
CRCC boasts three board-certified radiation oncologists – Steven Bass, Todd Williams, and Paul Goetowski – in addition to medical physicists, dosimetrists, as well as treatment and planning and treatment delivery specialists. Dr. Bass is a former chief resident at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and has special interest in prostate and gastrointestinal tract cancers. Dr. Williams has done extensive research in radiation therapy. He completed his residency in radiation oncology at MUSC and remains an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the school. He is an invited reviewer for many peer-reviewed journals, a lecturer, and has published nine articles and five abstracts. He has special interest in lung, head, neck and esophageal cancers. Dr. Goetowski received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and completed his residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He takes a special interest in lung and breast cancer cases.
CRCC's 30 full-time staff members exceed the national guidelines for staff per task to be performed and staff per number of patients. The size and quality of the staff ensures that treatments are carried out with the greatest precision, which is the primary key to success in radiation therapy.
The Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat can ease patients' minds while also healing their bodies.
More information about CRCC and the Myrtle Beach Cancer Care Retreat is available at www. CRCCmd. com or by calling (843) 449-9415. More information about Myrtlewood Villas is available at www. myrtlewoodvillas. com.
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