Cancer Care at Englewood Health

The Lefcourt Family Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center at Englewood Health is a leader in providing personalized treatment and integrated programs. Accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer as a Comprehensive Community Cancer Program, we offer a network of physicians; specialists and subspecialists; genomics; molecular medicine, targeted therapy and immunotherapy; advanced technology; clinical trials; cancer risk assessment and genetic counseling; a cancer prevention program; and continuing medical and scientific education for our physicians.

In our model, our specialists are co-located in disease management pods, allowing them to practice side by side, share best practices and collaborate on patient care. For lung cancer, for example, pulmonary oncologists, thoracic surgeons and other specialists see patients in one designated practice area, providing tremendous benefit to both patients and doctors.

Weekly multispecialty cancer conferences ensure that every patient receives a personalized care plan care developed by a team of medical and surgical oncologists, radiologists and interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists and cancer risk assessment and genetic counselors. Teams also include patient navigators, integrative medicine specialists and clinical trial coordinators.

Subspecialists

For patients with very complex diseases, we provide the highest level of care. Englewood Health has made significant investments in technology and is attracting specialists from top cancer centers. These subspecialists focus on single disease sites, such as the pancreas, liver, stomach, brain or lungs. For the most common cancers, we have entire divisions of specialists, including teams of breast surgeons, urologic oncologic surgeons and colon and rectal surgeons, who offer the latest treatments, from active surveillance to complex robotic surgery.

Regionality

We are placing subspecialists throughout Bergen and Hudson Counties and many local doctors have joined the Englewood Health Physician Network. Patients can receive complex care closer to home, and when needed, access to hospital-based services for specialized procedures and treatments, such as infusion therapy, radiation therapy and surgery.

Molecular Medicine

The use of genetic and molecular information about a patient’s tumor has become part of routine oncologic care at Englewood Health. Today, genomic profiling is performed for patients with all stages of anal, breast, colorectal, endometrial, gastric, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, glioblastoma, head/neck, lung, melanoma, nasopharyngeal and prostate cancer.

Identifying the biomarkers of a patient’s disease allows the team to understand the tumor’s biology, calculate risk and identify drugs to target the specific tumor type. In addition, if the tumor biology indicates low risk, patients may be spared more aggressive treatments.

Technology

At Englewood Health, we have surgeons trained in the busiest cancer centers who are experts in stereotactic radiosurgery, robotic procedures and other advanced treatments such as fluorescence technology for brain tumor surgery and MRI-ultrasound fusion-guided biopsy for prostate cancer. Complex robotic surgery for colon and rectal cancer, prostate and kidney cancer, and other conditions allows for smaller incisions, quicker recovery and less pain. Englewood Health also has advanced radiation oncology equipment that enables our radiation oncologists to perform procedures such as lung Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT).

The Future of Cancer Care

Scientists and physicians in the field of oncology are moving toward greater understanding of tumor behavior and risk, so that ultimately all cancers of the same site are not treated the same. In the near future, we will be able to further individualize care with even more effective treatments and fewer side effects, based on a deeper understanding of each patient’s risk and tumor response.

We’ll likely be using molecular biology more than the microscope to diagnose cancer. We will be able to more precisely treat each patient’s cancer with highly focused treatments based on the individual disease.

My Calling: Surgical Oncology

As a surgical oncologist, I feel a deep responsibility to those facing cancer. Like many surgeons and oncologists, I had incredible role models along the way, including when I trained at the National Cancer Institute. Nothing is more gratifying than helping people with a potentially life-threatening disease and seeing them live healthy lives and watch their children grow up healthy.

By Steven Brower, MD

Steven T. Brower, MD, is medical director of The Lefcourt Family Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center and chief of surgical oncology and hepatobiliary surgery at Englewood Health.