UPMC Opens New Cancer Center In Dublin, Ireland

Center is Second for UPMC in Ireland Since Opening of the Whitfield Cancer Centre in Waterford in 2006

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PITTSBURGH, May 14, 2007 – Ireland’s minister for health and children, Mary Harney, officially opened the Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre today in Dublin, Ireland. The new center provides cancer patients in Dublin with state-of-the-art radiation therapy and is the second international cancer center for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

“By linking the Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre with our network of UPMC Cancer Centers, we are able to provide cost-effective and technologically advanced radiation therapy locally to the residents of Ireland’s capital and largest city,” said Jeffrey Shogan, MD, director of business services and chief business officer at UPMC Cancer Centers.

The Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre provides patients with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). IMRT uses three-dimensional images to target radiation beams directly to a tumor, sparing nearby non-cancerous tissue from the effects of radiation. IGRT, the next phase of IMRT, adjusts for movement that occurs when a patient inhales and exhales at the time of treatment, making the delivery of radiation more accurate. The center also houses Europe’s first Trilogy TX image-guided radiosurgery system from Varian Medical Systems.

In addition to radiotherapy, the cancer center offers comprehensive care, including cancer imaging and medical and surgical oncology services under one roof. A joint program of Triad Hospitals Inc. and UPMC Cancer Centers, the new center is housed within the Beacon Hospital, a private facility that opened in January 2007.

The center is based on UPMC Cancer Centers’ hub-and-satellite model, which links community-based satellite locations to a hub facility, the Hillman Cancer Center, in Pittsburgh, Pa., through a telecommunications network. The network allows highly trained medical physicists based at the Hillman to share information and expertise with radiation specialists at satellite centers when developing highly complex radiation treatment plans for individual patients.

“The opening of the center in Dublin is another milestone in UPMC’s efforts to export our leading health care services around the globe,” said Chuck Bogosta, executive vice president at UPMC Cancer Centers and UPMC’s Strategic Business Initiatives. The Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre is UPMC’s second international cancer center, joining the Whitfield Cancer Centre, which opened in Waterford, Ireland in October 2006. UPMC’s international ventures also include a transplant hospital in Italy and the management of emergency medicine services in Qatar.

For more information about the centre and Beacon Hospital, visit http://www.beaconhospital.ie/.

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