{"id":39161,"date":"2011-02-03T16:40:44","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T20:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=39161"},"modified":"2015-09-23T16:50:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T20:50:07","slug":"advanced-technology-for-neag-comprehensive-cancer-center-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/02\/advanced-technology-for-neag-comprehensive-cancer-center-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Advanced Technology for Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Radiology technician Amy Sargent and Dr. Rob Dowsett, radiation oncologist, prepare the high-dose rate brachytherapy machine. The UConn Health Center was able to invest in this technology with a gift from Carole and Ray Neag, the university’s biggest philanthropic supporters. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An advanced cancer treatment is now available to UConn Health Center patients, thanks to the generosity of philanthropists and longtime university supporters Carole and Ray Neag<\/a>.<\/p>\n

High-dose rate brachytherapy temporarily delivers a high radiation source, or radioactive seed, to a tumor site. The speed and precision of this robotic therapy enables treatment on an outpatient basis and minimizes radiation exposure to healthy tissue. Brachytherapy is the delivery of a radiation source in direct proximity to a tumor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Neags\u2019 generous gift allows us to offer the latest, most advanced version of this technology to our patients,\u201d says Dr. Rob Dowsett<\/a>, radiation oncology specialist. \u201cCompared with traditional low-dose rate radiation implants, high-dose rate brachytherapy comes with the significant advantages of being an outpatient procedure, being more versatile, and eliminating exposure for medical personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

HDR brachytherapy is particularly effective in treating gynecological, breast, head and neck, pulmonary, and skin cancers, as well as sarcomas, which are tumors in connective tissue, bone, cartilage or muscle.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarole and I believe we should share our good fortune in a way that can help people benefit from new technology in health care,\u201d Ray Neag says. \u201cThere of course is a cost associated with these advancements, but what they\u2019re capable of is incredible, even unheard of not that long ago, and this is a nice thing to be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Neags, for whom the UConn Health Center\u2019s cancer program is named, are the university\u2019s most generous donors. Their $3.8 million pledge in 2008<\/a> enabled the Health Center to invest in upgrades to its diagnostic, planning and treatment services designed to enhance patient care. Those upgrades also include a new dual-source and dual-energy multi-slice computerized tomography (CT) scanner<\/a>, which went online in 2009, and plans for a CT simulator that will optimize treatment planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An advanced cancer treatment is now available to UConn Health Center patients, thanks to the generosity of philanthropists and longtime university supporters Carole and Ray Neag. High-dose rate brachytherapy temporarily delivers a high radiation source, or radioactive seed, to a tumor site. The speed and precision of this robotic therapy enables treatment on an outpatient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-39161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 15:13:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39161"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104737,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39161\/revisions\/104737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39161"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=39161"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}