00:00Hey everybody, my name is Pat Egan. I'm filling in for Andrew Salchunas. I'm from 97.5 The Fanatics Morning Show and today I'm very happy to be joined by Dr. Joseph Maraccio. He is the radiation oncologist with Penn Medicine Virtual Health Cancer Center. It's located right in South Jersey. Dr. Maraccio, how are you doing?
00:19I'm doing well. Nice to meet you, Pat.
00:20Yeah, now one of the things that we're talking about today is what you do for a living. Unfortunately, I think everybody has dealt with cancer. We at The Fanatic are dealing with it with our host, John Kincaid. He's battling it now. But you specialize in treating cancer radiation therapy. Now, for anyone who's not familiar with what that is, can you explain it and also what are the benefits of it?
00:41Yeah, so we treat cancer a couple different ways. Most people understand surgery and chemotherapy is pretty well. But radiation therapy is another form of local treatment, almost like a surgery of sorts. And now we're using focus beams of radiation to treat tumors where we see them and destroy the cancer cells.
00:58And then looking at Penn Medicine and virtual health, you guys are one of the best in the country because you're one of only 50 in the country and you have one in South Jersey that has the therapy center. Can you talk about the therapy center and what is important about that?
01:14The proton center? Yeah. So the main treatment we use is external beam radiation. You can deliver photons or protons.
01:24They have different physical properties and different advantages for each, but the short version is like photons tend to go through and through.
01:31So there can be some collateral damage, some exit dose with the beams of radiation.
01:36Proton therapy doesn't have that same exit dose.
01:40So there's some unique opportunities that we can reduce the risk of certain side effects depending on patients in that.
01:48And looking at it, I mean, one of only 50 in the country.
01:50So really in this area, it's it's I mean, virtual health and in Penn Medicine, you guys are kind of one of the country's leaders in this.
02:00Yeah, there's a there's a few of these around.
02:02It is a newer technology just growing.
02:05Certainly, Penn Medicine's been doing it for a very long time.
02:08There's a couple others popping up, but it is it's a limited resource not available everywhere.
02:12Can anyone that is dealing with cancer have proton therapy?
02:15Or is this something that only specific kinds of cancer and those patients, it applies to them?
02:22Proton and photon therapy are both used for a variety of cancers.
02:24Certainly, proton therapy is probably most well studied in tumors of the brain.
02:29The spine is where some of that some of their physical properties can shine the most.
02:34But we do use it for a variety of diseases.
02:36Cancer diagnoses are very unique situations.
02:38And all these decisions usually made by multidisciplinary groups trying to figure out between surgery, medical therapies, such as chemo or immunotherapies and radiation, how we're going to best treat this patient and and cause the least amount of side effects.
02:52And so it's a it's a group decision.
02:54And again, it kind of falls down to to specific situations for each patient, whether they're going to benefit or not.
03:00But certainly starting with the consultation to review this stuff is a it's a good starting point.
03:06Looking at virtual health and Penn Medicine and the Proton Center, it's just one of the comprehensive things that you guys do regarding cancer in South Jersey.
03:14Can you tell us more about some of the other features that you guys have?
03:17Yeah, so we have a unique relationship between Penn Medicine and virtual where we have this partnership that allows our patients access to, you know, experts from a couple of different specialties and some really advanced treatments, such again, such as the Proton Therapy Center, where you can have access to these great services without having to cross the bridges into Philadelphia and make treatments a little more convenient for patients.
03:39I mean, we laid out, it's really one of the best in the country.
03:42You know, before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like for some of our listeners to have if they're dealing with this?
03:48Yeah, it's always easier the sooner we know.
03:50So I would encourage patients to stay up to date on screening prostate cancers, breast cancers, colon cancers, and even lung cancers.
03:58We have well-defined screening programs, specifically lung cancer patients for patients who had a history of smoking, annual chest CTs can really give us an early tip off and early start, make things a lot easier.
04:10All right, well, to learn more about Proton Therapy at Penn Medicine Virtual Health Cancer Center in South Jersey, visit PennVirtuaProton.org.
04:19That's PennVirtuaProton.org.
04:21Doctor, thank you so much for joining us today.
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