For patients facing cancer, access to advanced treatment close to home can make a meaningful difference in their experience while receiving care. At Terrebonne General | Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, patients in Houma and the Bayou Region have access to comprehensive cancer services, including advanced radiation oncology, in a convenient location.
Providing a high level of care locally means patients can access increasingly precise and sophisticated radiation treatments without routinely traveling to larger cities. Rockne J. Hymel III, MD, radiation oncologist at Terrebonne General | Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, shares more about the radiation treatment options available in Houma, his approach to caring for patients in the Bayou Region and how advancements in technology are continuing to shape cancer care.
Radiation oncologists use radiation, most commonly targeted X-rays, to treat many types of cancer, as well as some noncancerous conditions. We meet with patients to evaluate their diagnosis, review treatment options and determine whether radiation therapy should be part of their cancer care plan. We then design an individualized treatment plan and oversee the delivery of radiation using a machine called a linear accelerator. Throughout treatment, we continue to monitor each patient and make adjustments when needed, using precise treatment planning to target the cancer while limiting radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
I grew up in Destrehan and attended Brother Martin High School before completing my undergraduate degree at LSU in Baton Rouge and medical school at LSU Health New Orleans. I then completed my radiation oncology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. I began practicing at Ochsner in Baton Rouge in 2019 before joining Mary Bird Perkins in Houma in 2023. Training and practicing in different settings has given me the opportunity to care for patients with a wide range of cancers and treatment needs.
One of our greatest strengths at the Cancer Center is the ability to provide advanced cancer care right here in Houma. We serve patients across a large geographic area, including rural and underserved communities throughout the Bayou Region where access to specialized cancer care may be limited. We can provide nearly all of the radiation treatments patients might otherwise have to travel to larger cities such as New Orleans or Baton Rouge to receive. Convenient access is important because transportation and distance can become significant barriers to starting or completing cancer treatment, particularly when radiation requires multiple visits.
Practicing in Houma gave me an opportunity to move closer to home while providing a needed service to this community. The Bayou Region needs a versatile, dedicated cancer care team capable of managing both complex medical needs and the challenges patients may face outside of treatment. Giving patients access to as many radiation treatment options as possible is critical, while also helping them remain close to home and confident in the quality of their care. It’s also important that physicians know they have a trusted option for radiation oncology in Houma when referring patients who live in this region.
Many of the advances we are seeing in radiation oncology focus not only on effectively treating cancer, but also on reducing side effects and helping patients maintain a better quality of life during and after treatment. Improvements in technology allow us to create highly precise radiation plans more efficiently while better protecting surrounding healthy tissue. We are also finding new applications for radiation outside of cancer care. For example, low-dose radiation therapy is being used for certain noncancerous conditions, including osteoarthritis, as a nonsurgical treatment option to help reduce pain and inflammation for appropriate patients.
Patients in Houma have access to advanced daily radiation treatments as well as highly precise techniques such as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). These approaches allow us to deliver very focused doses of radiation in fewer treatment sessions and are commonly used for conditions including certain lung cancers and tumors that have spread to the brain. Both SBRT and SRS are available here in Houma, and we have continued to expand these services to meet the needs of our patients. Our goal is always to provide patients with the sophisticated radiation treatment they need without requiring them to routinely travel away from the comfort and support of home.
Artificial intelligence is already being used in radiation oncology, particularly in treatment planning. Creating a radiation plan requires physicians and dosimetrists—specialists who help design radiation treatments—to carefully map where radiation should be delivered while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. AI-supported tools can help make parts of that process faster and more efficient, giving the care team more time to review and refine each patient’s plan. As these tools continue to improve, I expect AI to help us create high-quality radiation plans even more efficiently while supporting the expertise and judgment of the clinical team.
For patients facing cancer, having convenient access to advanced treatment can mean spending less time traveling and more time focused on care, recovery and the people who matter most. At Terrebonne General | Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, patients throughout the Bayou Region have access to advanced radiation oncology and a team committed to providing individualized cancer care close to home.
Learn more about radiation oncology services available in Houma at tgmbpcc.com or call (985) 857-8093 to make an appointment with our team.
