Cancer Care program receives $1.1 million grant from the VA

Published Jan. 24, 2008
By Mike Frangipane
88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The Wright-Patterson Cancer Care program has received a $1.1 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Those monies are targeted for the addition of personnel and the purchase of equipment and supplies to expand cancer services for both the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense population. According to
Dr. (Lt. Col.) E. Ronald Hale, Wright-Patterson's Chief of Radiation Oncology, this grant will soon enable the center to offer its prostate cancer patients prostate seed therapy, which is the implantation of radiation seeds directly into the prostate gland.

Included in the grant are funds to purchase radiosurgery equipment, which produces finely focused radiation beams used to treat brain tumors; and a new device that delivers high dose radiation for breast cancer and gynecological malignancies, as well as small skin cancers.