Though there are no prescriptions, words or procedures to make the worries go away, there are methods that can be adopted to make the journey less stressful.

Scott & White Memorial Hospital’s move this weekend into the Glenda Tanner Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center is the beginning of an effort by the medical center to make the process of cancer treatment easier.

“We will be the only medical facility in Central Texas where it is truly patient-focused in regards to cancer,” said Dr. Arthur Frankel, director of Glenda Tanner Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center, hematology/oncology division and Cancer Research Institute.

The patient and family will have everything they need in one place - the physicians, radiation therapy, medical oncology, surgery, social workers and psychology support.

“The family can deal with the issues without feeling like they are a traveling sideshow,” Frankel said.

It’s extremely reassuring to a patient that Scott & White has assembled all these different subspecialties for the care of people with cancer, he said.

“We’re working very hard on putting meat behind the words,” Frankel said. “It began with Glenda Vasicek. This was a lady who believed very deeply in personalizing care so that people were not frightened.”

Vasicek was a 45-year employee of Scott & White who was helping to raise money for the cancer treatment center when she was diagnosed with cancer in December 2006. She died a month later.

An immediate goal of the new facility will be to provide new patient navigators, like Vasicek, for cancer treatment center patients, he said.

“So no patient will have a sleepless night,” Frankel said. “I think that’s going to be one of the earliest additions in our future.”

The patient navigators, said Theresa Kelly, nurse manager of the cancer treatment center, would answer patients’ questions, help with scheduling appointments and be available for any follow-up information that might be needed.

The cancer treatment center will have 20 chairs for patients undergoing chemotherapy and eight chairs for receiving other treatment. The area where patients get chemotherapy looks out over the lawn on the north side of Scott & White clinic. The area is partitioned off and each has TVs and additional chairs for patient visitors.

The beauty of this outpatient facility is that it will bring together the surgeons, the medical oncologists and the radiology oncologists, who had been scattered around the campus to one place, seeing the cancer patient at the same time, said Dr. W. Roy Smythe, chairman of the department of surgery.

“We’ve known for several years in cancer care that it really does take a team and the best way to have that team work together is to put them all in one place,” Smythe said.

The community paid for the cancer treatment center, which creates a bond, Frankel said. The patients will expect exemplary care and the physicians and staff are aware of what is anticipated.

The move this weekend is completion of Part 1 of Phase I of the project.

Part 2 will involve building out the area of the clinic that has been vacated on the ground and first floor that will include surgery, radiation oncology, pediatric oncology, pediatric surgery and tumor registry. It is expected to open in the spring, according to Chris Scherer, cancer program coordinator for the tumor registry.

Frankel said both he and Smythe expect that in the next few years another arm of the cancer treatment center will be built to house more advanced technology.

“We are very committed to optimizing physiciansin the area … to get the very best to come here,” he said. “We’re very committed to having the latest technology in radiation therapy and surgery and there are already commitments in those areas to raise funds as well.”

Smythe said the cancer center project will go a long way in recruiting physicians who are expecting to practice in facilities like the new treatment center at Scott & White.

Phase II will be an additional building, adjacent to the treatment center, with room for radiation therapy, clinic research and clinical research therapy and more cancer clinicians, Smythe said.

Scott & White diagnoses an average of 2,000 new cancer cases each year and treats 16,000 cancer patients annually.

Smythe said the new treatment center could be filled up tomorrow with patients and physicians.

The 10-year vision of the cancer treatment center includes doubling or tripling the number of cases seen at Scott & White, Frankel said.

The setup of the new treatment center will enhance the work of Frankel and his staff at the Scott & White Cancer Research Institute, located on Scott & White’s West Campus off Airport Road.

The purpose of the Cancer Research Institute is to provide new treatments for Central Texas patients. Those treatments are now given to hospital patients, but within the cancer treatment center there will be an area for investigational treatments, Frankel said.

People will be able to come in during the day to get an experimental agent, but still be able to go home at night, he said.

Frankel wants Scott & White to become the leading cancer treatment center in Texas for referrals, advanced and personalized care, and experimental therapeutics.

Currently MD Anderson is the leader, he said, but Houston is not an easy place to navigate compared to a more user-friendly Temple and Scott & White.

Experimental drugs from the Scott & White Cancer Research Institute are being tested at MD Anderson and Frankel anticipates more of those tests taking place in Temple.

New treatments are a given, with the expansion of the cancer treatment center.

Frankel said he views this phase of the cancer center as a down payment for things to come.