Disease Management

Cancer
Cancer treatment usually involves one or more modalities of treatment. These potential modalities include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy drugs, symptom management and palliative care, as well as biologic and immunologic therapies. As medical oncologists, we mainly approach cancer treatment from the perspective of using drug therapies including chemotherapy, hormonal drugs, immunologic agents and biologic response modifier drugs. We work closely with our radiation and surgical colleagues in what has been referred to as multi-modality treatment approaches that combine drug therapies with either surgery and/or radiation for the best overall outcomes. Which options or combination of options that are most effective vary by cancer type and best approaches are optimized for each disease and each patient.

Hematology
Hematology is the study of and treatment of diseases of blood cells. White blood cells, red blood cells and platelets are the main cells affected by these diseases. There are many benign and malignant entities that can affect these cells and treatments are based on diagnosis. Testing can include blood tests, bone marrow testing, x-rays and sometimes biopsies. Anemia, low or high white blood counts, thrombocytopenia (low platelet counts), and leukemias are examples of diseases evaluated and treated in our office.

Palliative Care and Hospice
Unfortunately there are cancers that are not curable and ones where therapies eventually fail. There is a movement in our country toward insuring that end of life comes with comfort and dignity. As a group, MOOH is committed to this concept once therapy has failed and no other good options are available. Pain control and many other symptom management principles are utilized, often in collaboration with hospice. Hospice programs are geared to help families and patients with end of life and symptom control issues. There is depth of experience among our physicians and associates in this specialized area of medical care.