Cancer Treatment Centers of America

I have read numerous negative comments regarding CTCA on this and other boards that do not conform to my experience. Many of the comments refer to the "for profit" status of CTCA. Since when is profit a dirty word in this country. Think of all the services and products that you consume....are the products or services more valuable because they were delivered by a non-profit entity?...I don't think so.

My wife 52 was diagnosed with NSCLC IV pancoast in 3/07in Dallas after being misdiagnosed by her g.p for two years. We decided to go to CTCA-Tulsa immediately because we were distressed about the attitudes and comments from Drs in Dallas. I detected a "political correctness" in their attitudes....kind of like since my wife was a smoker she had this coming. CTCA accepted the out of network coverage our insurance provided and our out of pocket expenses have been reasonable.
What impressed me most about CTCA is the quality of the people there...both the employees and the patients. Most of the patients there have been "kicked" out of other centers including MD Anderson.
Within 10 days of my call to CTCA she was accepted, completely diagnosed, and was being treated with tomotherapy, and chemo..carbo/taxol. Aftrer six weeks of radiation they continued the chemo plus avistin for three cycles. Pet and Ct scans in Oct/07 and 1/08 were clear (pancoast lung tumor gone). In May of 08 they detected one enlarged adrenal gland and spots on two vertrbrae. Both oncologists believe that these mets were there initially but could not be seen or were missed. She has just started a six week tomotherapy & chemo (carbo.taxotere) regimen to attack these mets. I don't know how this will all turn out...noone does...but I feel that CTCA has gone for a cure right off the bat. Probably most important they have given us hope. I don't know the stats on how successful they are...but last week they had a luncheon for the five year survivors at Tulsa...the place was packed. Considering that CTCA was the last resort for most of these patients I was impressed.