Satellite treatment centers - how good/bad

I had some conversation with another HW member in my earlier post from today about satellite treatment centers of major cancer hospitals. How good/bad are they? Do the RO's there collaborate with any of their "famous" colleagues at the primary location?

I am considering initiating contact with an RO concerning my slow rise in uPSA (.007-.015) over 7 months and am looking at the MSKCC's Central New Jersey location. It is much more convenient for me. It seems like they can treat me and one of the PCa RO's there appears to work both sites, the primary and satellite locations. The issue is that this RO not only treats PCa, but several other cancers, as well, where the renowned RO at the primary location is a PCa only RO.

When I had surgery, I heard the experience of the surgeon was a huge factor. How important is "experience" of an RO in SRT treatment?

Any thoughts on the above?

J

I had my surgery at the main campus of big name hospital. The hospital has endless satellite branch hospital/centers around my part of the state. When it came time to do my radiation treatment, I was considering going to one of these centers which is a mile and a half from my work office as opposed to going to the main campus which is 19 miles away and in the center of the downtown traffic congestion. Since I had to go every day for nine weeks, the satellite branch seemed to make sense. When I mentioned this thought to my surgeon, he said "No way, this is something you want to have done at the main campus". I know we talk about surgeons not being experts on radiation. However my surgeon is also the director of the hospital's urology center and very active in the hospital happenings in general. That is, he seems to have a pretty good grasp of how the hospital works overall. He stopped short (just barely) from saying that the most skilled doctors are kept at the main campus, but plainly said that the main campus has the newest machines, best trained/practiced teams, etc. I don't want to generalize that this is always the case, but after talking to him, it seemed logical to me and made sense so I put aside the idea of convenience and went to main campus for treatment.

Thank you for asking such a great question. My husband got a radiation + ADT plan from a superb Mass General team. The treatment was carried out locally, but only because we knew the local radiologist was excellent. Our local urologist, who is excellent, ordered bone scans, and just sent us to Boston to get a plan for Phase 2--recurrence while my husband's PSA was .98. Well, the local onc had told us the rising PSA was "background noise." No, there are mets. On Monday we have an appointment with Dr. Matthew Smith at MGH. So it's been a mixed bag of excellence and just okay treatment locally with check-ins at a major center. I'll be following this thread.

I spoke with a good friend of mine today who runs a major cancer center in NYC. He’s not in the medical side, he’s head of administration. Specifically I asked him about the suburban outposts of MSKCC. From what he told me, the RO and the physicist lay out the plan. RO in broad strokes I guess and Physicist on a more micro level (my words not his). He said, after that the only thing that matters is the machines they use. Even the technicians don’t matter, the machine does all the work, the technicians just push the button.

So that’s something to focus on. In my case I’m planning to call the suburban location of MSKCC and ask about equipment specifics. I am confident about the RO, according to his bio, he practices at both locations (although I know he spends most of his time at the suburban location) and he is on the “MSKCC Prostate Cancer Research Team. So I know there is a focus for him.

MSKCC is building a big new facility near me, and my understanding is tht when that opens, in late 2019, the existing one (that I am looking at), will close. So I have a bad feeling that they may not be up to date on new equipment.

I have seen large Drs practices bought by major hopsital centers and the name is just slapped on them. That’s worthless to me. But I’ve also seen facilities that were opened as an outpost of the major centers. A good example is Cleveland Clinic , in Southeats Florida (I think Coral Springs??). They built an impressive facility from scratch, and I have no doubt the care is as good as going to Cleveland.

Bottom line, you have to pick your spots.