Because it is often caught too late, pancreatic cancer has a survival rate of less than 15%. Englewood Health is looking to improve those odds.
Under the guidance of Dr. Cherif Boutros, the medical director at the Lefcourt Family Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center at Englewood Health, the health system has established a pancreatic cancer prevention program for patients who have an incidental finding of pancreatic cysts or various high-risk factors.
It’s one of only a dozen or so programs in the country — and the only one that isn’t connected to a major academic research hospital.
“Our goal is to be the leader of cancer care in Northern New Jersey,” he said. “As such, we are offering the service where the patient lives that they can’t get elsewhere.”
Boutros said the pancreatic screening initiative is just one of the ways Englewood Health outpunches its weight class — proving that a community hospital can be a leader in cancer care, too.
Boutros, who took over as director last July, said Englewood’s excellence can be seen in a number of areas.
There’s a screening program that recognizes colon cancer is impacting patients far younger than usual — in their 30s. And the new variables that come with early detection, such as family planning issues.
On the other end of the spectrum, Englewood offers geriatric cancer programs that enable those who are diagnosed late in life to still maintain a high quality of living.
Boutros said it’s all about complete community cancer coverage. That starts with preventing cancer from occurring at all.
It’s why he and his staff will spend many days speaking to community groups about issues that may impact their communities. Boutros recently spoke to a large group of residents with Korean heritage, a large community in the area.
“Screening programs for breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, uterine cervix cancer, lung cancer and others are offered here.” — Dr. Cherif Boutros
And on Lung Screening Awareness Day (the second Saturday in November), Englewood had screening opportunities at all of its facilities — and made efforts to bring as many people with high-risk factors as possible.
“If a diagnosis of cancer is made, we offer patient a full myriad of services, including the multidisciplinary care with high-level board-certified physicians of all disciplines, where cases are discussed in a multidisciplinary fashion and a high number of clinical trials are offered,” he said.
The goal, however, is to prevent it from ever getting that far.
“We have a full menu of cancer prevention programs,” he said. “A lot of risk factors for cancer are reversible. That’s the role of the primary care physician, but it’s one that we take on in our cancer program.
“Screening programs for breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, uterine cervix cancer, lung cancer and others are offered here.
“The goal is to do a migration from early-stage diagnosis to early-stage prevention.”
For information about Englewood Health, go to englewoodhealth.org.
