In modern cancer medicine, the discipline of medical oncology assumes a central role. In a multidisciplinary team, a medial oncologist is the team leader who coordinates the patient's diagnostic workup, orchestrates the various treatment strategies, such as radiotherapy or surgery and supervises the administration of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. By assuming the central role, the medial oncologist is also responsible for all aspects of medial care, management of the complications, control and prevention of side effects and pain and psychological guidance of the patient through the complex treatment sequences.

Through our years of collective cancer care experience, and the individual expertise of our medical staff, we have learned that it is better to treat patients with a tight focus on their disease specific physical and psychological needs, rather than by one broad approach. Therefore, we are currently reorganizing our delivery of care to provide highly concentrated multidisciplinary disease specific services. These specialized diagnostic and treatment services each focus on a specific type of organ cancer and are directed by their own lead physician and a team of specialists in that field. These services will also include a strong academic component with a research and treatment orientation that offers all the present state of the art treatment modalities as well as novel and even experimental therapies.

Each service is designed to offer an innovative one stop� approach to diagnosis and consultation, where the patients are seen by a team of specialists - medical, surgical, radiation, rehabilitation and so on in the space of one afternoon. This enables patients to obtain quickly a comprehensive treatment strategy with which to move forward. Our Programs of Excellence are already in various stages of development from concept to completion. At the present, we are building Programs of Excellence for the following organ system specific cancers.

Medical Oncology Programs - Cancer Specific

Breast Cancer
The Breast Cancer Service has already been established and is the prototype for the other centers. It provides multidisciplinary consultations as well as sophisticated treatment planning. The lead medical oncologist is Zia Rahman, M.D.

Gastrointestinal Cancers
Gastrointestinal malignancies are among the most common, with approximately 3,500 new cases per year in Connecticut. The Saint Francis/Mount Sinai Regional Cancer Center already cares for a significant portion of these patients. The service expects to be the first comprehensive approach to GI malignancies in the Hartford region. The lead medical oncologist for this program is Jonathan Sporn, M.D.

Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia
The Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia Service will include a sophisticated diagnostic component and novel, aggressive approaches in the treatment of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma and acute and chronic leukemias. This program is under the medical direction of Syed Bilgrami, M.D.

Female Reproductive Cancers
Integrated with the Breast Health Center and the Women's Health Center is the Female Reproductive Cancer Service. This Program of Excellence is providing a complete approach to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of various female malignant diseases, in particular ovarian cancers. Special efforts are being made to accommodate the often neglected emotional and body image needs of women with cancer. The lead medical oncologist for this program is Susan Rabinowe, M.D.

Renal Cell, Prostate, Urologic Cancers
As with the majority of these organ specific cancers, currently no comprehensive approach exists in our area to treat urologic cancers, even though they represent the most frequent malignancies in males. Our plans include new treatment options for patients with prostate and renal cell carcinomas that complement our already established high dose brachytherapy and the surgical treatments available by offering novel immunotherapy approaches. Lead medical oncologist for this program is Jonathan Sporn, M.D.

Lung Cancer
Lung cancer continues to increase in numbers, especially among female patients. To address these needs, a Program of Excellence for Lung Cancers is in the process of being established and staffed by thoracic surgeons, radiotherapists, pulmonary specialists and medical oncologists under the leadership of Joerg Rathmann, M.D. The multi-modality treatment approaches include photodynamic therapy and molecular targeted therapies with novel agents such as Iressa.

To offer World Class Medical Oncology we will continuously introduce new services to our institution, such as a High-dose Chemotherapy Service and a Cellular Immunotherapy Service. These services will represent an added dimension of cancer care for the community.

Our medical oncology team includes physicians, physician assistants, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, nursing assistants and secretarial support staff.

• Peter Tutschka, M.D., Director and Physician-in-Chief
• Syed Bilgrami, M.D. 
• Richard Edwards, M.D.
• Dominick Pasquale, M.D.
• Susan Rabinowe, M.D. 
• Zia Rahman, M.D.
• Joerg Rathmann, M.D.
• Debra Sculco, M.D.
• Jonathan Sporn, M.D.

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