Partners expand cancer program
Tarrytown-based ENT and Allergy Associates L.L.P. and The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City are expanding their clinical partnership to screen and treat patients for esophageal cancer.
Started in 2007, the first-of-its-kind partnership has treated nearly 2,000 patients in a comprehensive screening and treatment program for head and neck cancer. Dr. Wayne Eisman, president of ENTA, said the specialty group practice and Mount Sinai will expand their affiliation to include the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer.
Patients will benefit from a comprehensive program that begins with an examination in a local ENTA office in the metropolitan area. If further care is needed, the patient will be sent to a gastrointestinal doctor in his or her community. Patients with suspected lesions will be treated at the division of gastroenterology at Mount Sinai.
A type of esophageal cancer related to acid reflux disease and adenocarcinoma of the esophagus has increased 500 percent in men and 300 percent in women since 1975, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Jonathan Aviv, clinical director of the voice and swallowing center at ENTA, said the technique for screening of the esophagus, called transnasal esophagoscopy, takes only minutes to perform while the patient is awake and unmedicated. The minimally invasive technique was pioneered by doctors at ENTA.
Hospital named sinus center
Sound Shore Medical Center of Westchester in New Rochelle has been designated a Sinus Center of Excellence in the treatment of chronic sinusitis.
Sound Shore officials said it is one of only two hospitals in Westchester and only the fourth in New York to receive the distinction. Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor is the other sinus center in the county.
Patients with chronic sinusitis are treated with balloon sinuplasty, a minimally invasive, innovative system, at the Sound Shore Medical Center division of otolaryngology. The technique, which uses a balloon to spread and open the sinuses, can replace conventional sinus surgery that requires removal of bone and tissue to open passageways.
Dr. Matthew J. Kates, chief of head and neck surgery in the New Rochelle hospital’s otolaryngology division, called it the first innovation in sinus surgery in nearly 20 years.
