By Zach Patberg
Since it opened three years ago, the high-tech cancer center at Queens Hospital Center is not only the first of its kind in Queens, but the first in the city to operate in a public hospital, making it both more convenient and inclusive for its 21,000 cancer patients in the borough. Directing the center is Dr. Margaret Kemeny, a distinguished oncology surgeon recently elected vice chairwoman of the American College of Surgeons' Board of Governors Ð the governing body of the largest organization of surgeons in the world.Recruited to QHC by then-Borough President Claire Shulman in 2001, Kemeny has provided the center with some of the most advanced treatment procedures while spreading preventive testing and screening throughout a borough known for late-detection among its cancer patients.According to the director, more than a third of borough women with breast cancer are not diagnosed until the disease has progressed to a virtually incurable stage, about three times more than the 12 percent nationwide.That statistic has dropped considerably at the center, she said, and “there's no question we will have an impact on the borough.”Stepping through two glass doors on the hospital's fifth floor, one finds a service for every need, from financial paperwork and blood testing to prescription drugs and treatment.Kemeny pointed to 10 chemotherapy stations, each equipped with a Barcalounger and a personal television. “Sometimes the therapy can last all day,” she explained.The center's multi-pronged approach to care also means the patient does not have to visit different hospitals for second opinions, according to Kemeny. Here, she said, each patient's treatment is outlined collaboratively by surgeons, chemotherapists and radiation specialists.Regarding treatment itself, the goal is to be as precise as possible, stressed Kemeny, since chemotherapy's and radiation's arbitrary attack on rapidly dividing cells cause side effects such as a low blood cell count and hair loss.For chemo, one precision-driven instrument the center uses is an infusion pump, placed just under the skin in the abdomen, that releases chemo directly into a cancerous liver as opposed to the standard practice of injecting it into the arm, Kemeny said.For radiation, rather than draping the patient with a 40-pound protective lead apron, the center's linear accelerator uses a multi-leaf lead gate behind its lens to pinpoint where the beam will go.”It's a lot safer, more convenient and a lot easier on the therapist's back,” said senior radiation therapist Rod Infanti in the accelerator room. Another method, called brachytherapy, injects a small seed of radiation directly into the diseased organ.The brachytherapy suite, built seven months ago, includes a small room sealed by heavy lead-lined doors where a patient receiving treatment can lie down and relax to soft jazz and a picture of a tropical beach. Kemeny pointed out some of the center's other accommodations. The Procedure Room gives ultrasound biopsies. Next door is a lab, where a blood analysis could tell a patient within three minutes whether his blood cell count was high enough for chemo. An oncology pharmacist fills prescriptions on the spot.And Kemeny has plans for more. She has been on the lookout for funding for a $2.4 million PET scanner, which can highlight the cancer-infected area in the body by injecting positrons in the blood's glucose.To combat late-detection of breast cancer, the center, as part of a $500,000 allocation from the City Council to the Queens Hospital Network, is building a “mammovan.” Starting April, it will travel around Queens giving free mammograms to women.Forming the QHC Center into a world-class front against cancer has just been the latest in Kemeny's long line of hard tasks. After finishing medical school at Columbia University, the cum laude Harvard graduate entered her residency in the late 1960s alone among a sea of men.”I felt hostility and no encouragement,” she said in her QHC office last Thursday. Now, as one of only about five women oncology surgeons in the country, she means to use her two-year term with the American College of Surgeons to address “the plight of women in surgery.”Kemeny acknowledged that the situation has improved, with the percentage of female U.S. surgeons doubling to about 10 percent in the last decade.Still, “there are so very few woman in the field,” the doctor said. “And we all need role models.”Reach reporter Zach Patberg by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
