Hearing “you have cancer” can be frightening, but the cancer-fighting specialists at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute are ready and uniquely qualified to help you conquer your cancer here in Greater Baton Rouge, enabling you to stay close to home surrounded by your family and support system.
Learning about the many different types of cancer treatments can be daunting. But we’re here to help, and the physicians at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute specialize in a variety of treatment types.
The types of treatments you will undergo depend on the type of cancer you have and how advanced it is. Depending on many factors, you may have only one treatment, such as radiation therapy, or a combination of treatments, such as surgery and chemotherapy. All patients will be screened for participation for one of the many clinical trials at the Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute.
Chemotherapy can be used to treat many types of cancer, either as the sole treatment or in conjunction with other cancer treatments. It can be administered orally via pills, capsules or liquid; through injections or an IV; through a port; and even through a topical cream or other means.
Medical oncologists at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute use chemotherapy to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells, which can grow and divide rapidly. It can also ease cancer symptoms by shrinking tumors that cause pain and other problems.
Chemotherapy can be used before radiation therapy or surgery to decrease the size of a tumor. It can also destroy any cancer cells that remain after another form of cancer treatment.
In June 2022, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center became the first hospital in the Baton Rouge region to perform hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to treat cancer of the abdomen. Mohammad Al Efishat, MD, a surgical oncologist at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute, successfully performed the procedure on a patient with advanced cancer tumors in the abdomen who otherwise would not have found success with traditional chemotherapy. Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy applies heated chemotherapy drugs directly to the affected areas of the abdomen to eliminate any hard-to-find tumor cells. It is usually part of a two-step procedure that begins with open surgery to remove or “debulk” any visible tumors before treating the area with the heated chemotherapy. Exposing the cancer cells to higher-than-normal temperatures can change the cells in ways that make them easier to treat with chemotherapy. Some common cancers treated with HIPEC:
Hematologic malignancy cell therapy is a treatment that uses cell therapies to treat blood cancers, also known as hematologic malignancies. Some common treatment options include:
Hormone therapy, or hormonal therapy, is used to treat prostate and breast cancers, both of which rely on hormones to grow and spread. There are two types of hormone therapies: those that block the body’s ability to produce hormones and those that interfere with how hormones behave in the body.
Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute uses hormone therapy in combination with other cancer treatments to stop or slow cancer growth. For men with prostate cancer, it can reduce or prevent symptoms in cases where they are not able to have surgery or radiation therapy.
The most common ways hormone therapy is administered are orally via a pill, an injection, or surgery to remove organs that produce hormones, such as the ovaries or testicles.
Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy using substances made from living organisms to help your immune system fight cancer. The immune system will naturally try to fight infections and other diseases, but some cancer cells are capable of counteracting or even confusing the immune system.
Several types of immunotherapies can be deployed, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, T-cell transfer therapy, monoclonal antibodies, treatment vaccines and immune system modulators – all of which either beef up the immune system’s capabilities or target cancer cells to make them more visible to your immune system’s defenses.
Immunotherapy can be administered orally via a pill, through an IV, through a topical cream or other means.
This type of cancer treatment targets specific proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide and spread. Medical oncologists at Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute use two types of targeted therapy:
At Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute, surgeons can treat, manage and prevent various types of cancers. A surgeon not only removes tumors, cancerous cells and growths, but also takes measures to avoid the potential spread and further risk of more cancer.
Surgery can treat many types of cancers, such as removing solid tumors, removing portions of a tumor (debulking) that otherwise might damage an organ if fully removed, and removing tumors as a way to ease some cancer symptoms.
Sometimes surgery is the only treatment needed, but it is often used in combination with other cancer treatments.
Our surgeons provide comprehensive care within a multidisciplinary team, specializing in minimally invasive procedures such as Laparoscopic and Robotic Assisted treatment of tumors. Our surgeons have undergone specialty training and offer a high degree of specialization and expertise. Cancer surgery is generally considered complex, and published data have demonstrated that hospitals and surgeons with the highest volume experience with specific operations have the lowest complication and death rates.
Our surgeons and interventional radiologists offer a breadth of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, including:
Our surgeons specialize in the following areas: