Adding a 30-minute car ride to time spent in daily cancer treatments just adds to a patient’s predictable discomfort and worry. Who will drive you and take you home? Will the driver have to stay while you’re treated? How will I fare during the car trip? With the groundbreaking last week of Middlesex Hospital’s new cancer treatment center at Shoreline Medical Center in Westbrook, by next year, that car trip could be cut in half for shoreline patients.

According to Middlesex Hospital spokesman Peg Arico, the cancer services offered at the Westbrook site will mirror those already offered at the hospital’s Cancer Center in Middletown.

“It’s a big burden [for patients] to go to Middletown to get daily treatments,” said Vin Capece, president and CEO of Middlesex Hospital. “Now they can get the care they need on the shoreline.”

Capece said that in addition to radiation and medical oncology services, the new 4,000 square foot cancer center addition will offer on-site complementary cancer services including genetic counseling, alternative supportive therapies, and social work services. Offices of primary care doctors associated with Middlesex Hospital have already moved to the Shoreline Medical Center from nearby leased medical office space.

What will be new for the shoreline is the Westbrook center’s state-of-the-art linear accelerator, a precisely targeted form of x-ray. Middlesex Hospital’s Middletown cancer center already has two accelerators. When the Westbrook facility and accelerator come online, the hospital plans to decommission the oldest of the two Middletown accelerators as the state limits the number of accelerators.

“The linear accelerator we’re putting in is a state-of-the-art piece of equipment,” said Dr. Joseph Weissberg, chair of Middlesex Hospital’s Department of Radiation Oncology. “When we introduced intensity modulated cancer therapy, we were one of the first to do so in the state.”

Capece noted that in 2015, Middlesex Health System joined the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a consortium of high-performing hospitals working with Mayo Clinic to bring highest-level care to local communities.

“For the patient, it provides access to the world-renowned experts of the Mayo Clinic,” said Capece.

The new Middlesex Hospital Shoreline Medical Center Cancer Center in Westbrook will add 4,000 square feet to the Medical Center’s current 60,000 square feet. The Cancer Center is projected to open for business in October 2017.