Cancer Treatment
Mercy Regional Cancer Center is dedicated to providing comprehensive quality care for cancer patients. Our health care team professionals work with each patient to establish personalized treatment plans and goals, offering guidance, expertise and compassion for patients and families. We care about each patient as an individual, and offer a variety of treatment options.
We offer three main areas of cancer treatment: surgical, medical (chemotherapy), and radiation.
In each of these treatment areas, our goals are:
- To cure
- To control the disease
- To relieve symptoms and improve quality of life
Surgical Treatment
Mercy Regional Cancer Center’s surgical treatment removes tumors or parts of tumors in order to control the disease or cure the patient, where possible. This approach can be used as a therapy or comfort measure, as well, to help ease the patient’s symptoms and improve their quality of life.
Medical Treatment or Chemotherapy
Mercy Regional Cancer Center’s in-patient cancer unit provides symptom management and chemotherapy for hospitalized patients on the 7th floor of Mercy Medical Center. This specialized care area was the first of its kind in Cedar Rapids, established by Mercy in 1978.
Our staff bring a combination of 75 years in oncology training and experience to the care of their cancer patients. Our oncology nurses are highly-skilled, nationally-certified professionals. In addition to their excellent care, Mercy Regional Cancer Center also has its own social worker and dietitian who work closely with each patient. We assess individual patients when they begin treatment here, and follow up as needed with weekly visits, depending on the kind of cancer being treated, and need for evaluating diet and other issues.
We work closely with local oncology offices in Cedar Rapids to offer as coordinated an approach as possible in treating patients. In that respect, we function as a sort of resource center, for advice, evaluation, referrals, education and treatment.
Mercy’s oncology staff includes a dedicated oncology nurse clinician who ensures that patients receive care based on the national standards of the Oncology Nursing Society. Our nursing staff continually upgrades clinical skills through ongoing education.
Nursing technicians work closely with our nurses to help patients with symptom management, the primary reason for admission to Mercy’s in-patient unit on 7th floor.
Symptom management includes:
- pain control
- IV fluids for dehydration
- aggressive nausea management
- nutritional support and care
Mercy oncology nurses also manage:
- chemotherapy infusions, or IVs
- blood product transfusions
- complicated antibiotic regimens
- telemetry monitoring
Outpatient Treatment Center
Here, our staff provides blood transfusions, outpatient chemotherapy and other outpatient services as needed for cancer patients.
Margaret and Howard Hall Radiation Center
Mercy’s Hall Radiation Center has been caring for cancer patients and their families since 1956, when 
it was established by Margaret and Howard Hall, well-known Cedar Rapids community leaders and philanthropists.
Howard Hall, a local industrialist, and his wife Margaret also funded the Hallmar Convalescent Wing at Mercy, and established the Hall Foundation, which still supports many community causes.
Mercy’s Hall Radiation Center was a leader from the start, housing Iowa’s first cobalt-beam radiation treatment center. Today, the Center combines the latest, sophisticated technology with the Mercy Touch in offering effective, compassionate care.
To take a virtual tour of the Hall Radiation Center, make sure you have the QuickTime plug-in installed, then click the 
button.
State-of-the-art technology
Advanced technology can make all the difference in precision, which is critical in radiation therapy.
The TomoTherapy Hi-Art SystemTM is a new, revolutionary way to treat cancer with radiation. With TomoTherapy, physicians can check the location of your tumor before each treatment, then deliver painless and precise radiation therapy based on a carefully customized plan. TomoTherapy combines precise 3- D imaging from computerized tomography (CT scanning) with highly targeted radiation beams.
Mercy’s Hall Radiation Center has a B-mode Acquisition and Targeting system (known as the BAT system) as part of our three-dimensional treatment planning. The BAT is a tumor-localizing system guided by ultrasound that allows a more precise focus of the radiation beam on a patient’s tumor. That means that higher radiation doses that may improve cure rates can be used, with less damage to surrounding tissues and adjacent organs.
Hall Radiation Center also offers Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), considered one of the better cancer treatments because it has fewer side effects. This approach uses computer-generated images to plan and deliver therapy. Because it is a 3-dimensional form of radiation (like BAT), it allows the use of a higher dose of radiation while sparing healthy, surrounding tissue.
IMRT allows more precise targeting of tumors. This is significant because tumors form in many different sizes, shapes and locations. They may be next to a critical organ in the body, such as the brain, an eye or the spine. IMRT is especially effective in treating cancer occurring in the head and neck, as well as prostate cancer (the most common cancer in men) and recurring cancers.
Other tools that help our staff provide effective care are two linear accelerators and dedicated treatment planning unit for prostate seed implants.
Ongoing research
Mercy’s Hall Radiation Center receives federal funding for oncology research, and participates in the North Central Cancer Treatment Group and National Cancer Institute-sponsored Clinical Research programs. These enable us to provide the most current and advanced treatment available for cancer patients.
Upgrades planned include the additional capacity for high-dose radiation (HDR) for intracavity and prostate brachytherapy.
Hall Radiation Center also incorporates a multi-faceted approach to cancer treatment that includes nutrition, massage and elements of holistic care through services from other areas of Mercy Medical Center.
