The facilities of Jefferson’s Department of Radiation Oncology, known clinically as the Bodine Center for Cancer Treatment, were completed in 1987 and occupy three contiguous levels of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, totaling 57,000 square feet.

The center incorporates facilities for patient reception, examination, care, follow-up, and other services. In a single, distinct, purpose-built facility, it also includes an IV Infusion Center, administrative and physicians’ offices, a computer center, a physics laboratory, a library, a large conference room for meetings and seminars, and several research laboratories. Located on the center’s patient-care level are four double-energy linear accelerators, with two of them equipped with cone-beam CT capabilities for image guided adaptive radiation therapy.  In addition, there are two simulators (one CT simulator), an intraoperative suite, a computerized-treatment planning center, as well as support functions such as the machine shop, mold room, and electronics shop.

The department cares for more than 2,000 new cancer patients per year, of whom approximately 1,000 receive radiation treatments. The center has combined clinics for head & neck cancer, lung cancer, genitourinary malignancies, and central nervous system (CNS) tumors. The staff has performed many hundreds of special treatments with implants, intracavitary applications, and intraoperative procedures over the past ten years.

The department has also formed a joint program with Jefferson’s Department of Neurosurgery, a key feature of which is the radiosurgery unit. The program has one of the few dedicated stereotactic linear accelerators (LINACs) in the country and is one of the few centers to also have a Gamma Unit facility. These multimillion-dollar, photon technologies significantly improve the options available to patients with brain tumors.

The department’s other centers include the Jefferson-Chestnut Hill Radiation Oncology Center, which offers top cancer specialists and the latest oncologic treatments and equipment to patients living in the communities of Northwest Philadelphia and eastern Montgomery County. In addition, the Jefferson-Lower Bucks Radiation Oncology Center, which opened in 1996, is the only university hospital-related radiation oncology facility in Bucks County. The Jefferson Radiation Oncology Center at Riddle opened in October, 1999.  The largest center is at Frankford Torresdale Hospital in Northeastern Philadelphia, where residents rotate twice during their training.

Clinical staff in the department include ten radiation oncologists. The medical physics division is composed of PhD and MS physicists, postdoctoral candidates in physics, computer scientists, and mechanical/electronic engineers and technologist. The department also has six dosimetrists.

The technical staff in the treatment area includes a chief radiation therapist, an assistant-chief radiation therapist, 13 radiation therapists, a clinical supervisor, and two simulator and CT technologists.

Jefferson’s Radiation Safety Office helps ensure that the department meets all guidelines for radiation safety. The department’s Laboratory of Experimental Radiation Oncology conducts basic radiobiological and oncologic research.

The department employs a social worker, who helps patients and families recognize and address their questions and concerns regarding treatment and prognosis. The social worker assists with patient support groups. Available for consult from Jefferson’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior is a staff psychiatrist (psychooncologist) specializing in counseling for cancer patients.

Oncology nurses are an indispensable part of the oncology team and participate closely in all aspects of patient care, collaborating with the staff and resident physicians.

Clerical and secretarial supervisors help in routing consults and requests for information from other hospitals. Staff physician secretaries, receptionists, file room personnel, the accounting clerk, the billing manager, and other administrative staff are also of great assistance to the staff of residents and attendings.