New partnership will allow cancer patients to be treated by Memorial Sloan Kettering doctors in Queens
NEW YORK -- A new partnership for Queens residents means they won't have to leave the borough to get quality cancer care.
Doctors from Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan will now be seeing cancer patients and providing treatment to them at Jamaica Hospital.
This move will help address health disparities in underserved communities.
"When I see a patient with cancer now, I know exactly what they have ahead of them," said Dr. Sabiha Raoof, a cancer survivor. "I read my own mammogram when I did my first mammogram at the age 40 and I diagnosed my breast cancer, which was a very eye-opening experience for me."
Raoof said, even as a doctor, it was difficult for her to get the care she needed living outside of the city. She traveled to Memorial Sloan Kettering for months for her treatment.
"Ever since that, it has been my desire to bring that cancer care to the patients that we serve here," she said.
And now, the new partnership with the comprehensive cancer center will do just that for residents in southeast and southwest Queens.
"Patients, understandably, want to get treated close to home, but a lot of the advancements occur in big centers. It takes a while for the transition of what occurs in the big center to get into the community," Memorial Sloan Dr. David Pfister said.
Last year, 4,000 Queens residents had surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatments at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Doctors at both hospitals say it will make it easier for patients to keep up with their treatments and follow-up appointments, and will have less impact on their time away from work, and loved ones who have to travel with them.
"We know our patients. They don't want to go out of the borough, which sometimes leads to not getting treatment and bad outcomes," Raoof said.
Doctors at Jamaica Hospital give chemotherapy to 15-20 patients per day, but with their new partner they expect that number to increase significantly.
With more than 10,000 residents in Queens being diagnosed with cancer every year, according to state health officials, and many immigrants families in the borough facing disparities in education, housing, food and distrust in the health system, doctors say this partnership is critical.
"Cancer is a significant unmet need in this community," Raoof said.
"It's really addressing, I think, these health disparities, which I think is a big public health problem," Pfister added.
