Jewish General Hospital - Press releases

2012/04/18

Peter Brojde Lung Cancer Centre officially opens at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital

Brojde Centre’s mission to provide exceptional care based on innovative vision of blending Western and traditional Chinese medicine

The Jewish General Hospital (JGH) today announced the official opening of the Peter Brojde Lung Cancer Centre (Brojde Centre) at the Segal Cancer Centre.

While certain services of the Brojde Centre have long been available to patients through the Pulmonary Oncology Department of the JGH, this new, state-of-the-art facility provides a permanent home for the Pulmonary Oncology program’s dedicated and multi-disciplinary team of healthcare experts. Located on the 10th floor of the Segal Cancer Centre, the Brojde Centre will serve all lung cancer patients and their families, on an ongoing basis.

A medical team of oncologists, surgeons, pathologists, respirologists, and a specialized nursing team will work alongside complementary practitioners, such as a holistic nurse, nutritionist, physiotherapist-traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and massage therapist. Patients will benefit from a holistic approach tailored to their individual needs, with the goal of optimizing wellness before, during and after medical treatment.

The Brojde Centre will be a base for research into the emerging field of “personalized” medicine, which approaches cancer by examining tumours at the molecular level in an effort to identify their unique genetic composition. In this way, new pathways to treatment will be revealed, and more effective novel therapies that target specific molecular characteristics of the tumour can be developed.

“I was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007,” says Virginia Thomas. “Immediately after that, I started receiving care from the staff at the Jewish General Hospital. All of the various experts within the hospital, plus many new caregivers, now have a permanent home within the JGH thanks to the Brojde Centre. Based on my experience, I can certainly attest to the importance of offering lung cancer patients as many positive options as possible. The Brojde Centre will now improve patients’ quality of life and make them as strong as possible during treatment. On behalf of lung cancer patients at this hospital, I would like to thank the Brojde family for their vision and generous commitment to this project,” adds Ms. Thomas.

“The Brojde Centre is innovative and quite unique because it was purpose-built to create an exceptional environment for merging both Western medicine with other complementary medicines,” explains Dr. Jason Agulnik, Co-Director, Peter Brojde Lung Cancer Centre. “The JGH is certainly not the only hospital to offer both types of medicine, but it is one of the very few in North America and is unique in Canada to do so in a completely integrated manner.”

“Patients have sometimes benefited from both Western and Traditional Chinese medicine, but their treatment has not been coordinated by a hospital treating team of conventional and complementary practitioners who are responsible for the health and well-being of the whole patient,” continues Mary Grossman, N PhD, Co-Director, Peter Brojde Lung Cancer Centre. “The Brojde Centre now makes this possible. Our team collectively follows patients over time, consulting regularly with them to adjust their blended and personalized care and treatment according to their clinical status. We are all united by a commitment to improve the quality of life of all our patients.”

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Contact:

Glenn J. Nashen, Director
Astrid Morin, Media Relations
Public Affairs and Communications
Jewish General Hospital
Tel.: 514-340-8222 ext. 4612
Email: amorin@jgh.mcgill.ca
Website: jgh.ca