To Your Health

UofL Health Brings Cancer Care Closer to Home

Photography Provided

Comfort. Teamwork. Quality care. These are just a few words that describe the experience you’ll find as a patient at UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center, and now it’s right in your neighborhood.

Brown Cancer Center’s new location at UofL Health – Medical Center Northeast brings all the advantages of the world-renowned downtown location to northeastern Jefferson County. Now the quality, services and academic medicine provided by UofL Health are closer to your home, located at 2401 Terra Crossing Boulevard.

“Patients who had historically come downtown wanted to transition to Northeast since they lived out there,” says Beth Riley, M.D., a breast medical oncologist. “We started to see a lot of patients in the surrounding communities come as new patients. It ramped up very quickly, so much so that we’re adding physicians to add even more access.”

With the addition of the Brown Cancer Center services to the Medical Center Northeast location, it has become much easier for members of the Jeffersontown, Middletown, Westport and Crestwood communities to request a screening or receive treatment without having to make a trip downtown. Riley believes the convenient location of Medical Center Northeast is one of the reasons the facility has quickly blossomed.

“Oncology appointments, treatment, scans, echoes – all of that can be done at Medical Center Northeast,” Riley says. “I started out at Medical Center Northeast in October 2020, and my patients love the convenience.”

At UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center’s northeast location you will also find the same high-quality providers who specialize in treating cancer in the way that’s best for each individual patient. Riley prefers to take an education-based approach with her patients.

“My treatment philosophy is to try to ensure patients understand as much about their disease as I know about their disease,” Riley says. “That way we can make better-informed treatment decisions together.”

One of our inspiring patients at UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center is breast cancer survivor Melanie Beil. Beil explains that she was playing with her dog at home when she noticed an unusual lump. That is when she got it checked out and discovered she had developed metastatic breast cancer. After receiving this difficult news, Beil decided to come to the Brown Cancer Center for a second opinion, and she never looked back.

“It was a very easy decision once I talked with the team,” Beil says.

Shortly after her diagnosis, Beil began her treatment at the Brown Cancer Center, signaling the start of her long journey. Beil explains that her treatments came in phases, within a series of different kinds that shrunk her cancer from 5.7 centimeters to 2 millimeters. After undergoing a double mastectomy and radiation treatments, Beil was deemed cancer-free. She has been in the clear for more than a year now, but she still must undergo a maintenance treatment regimen that lessens the chance of her cancer recurring. Through her advocacy and resilience, Beil continues to inspire breast cancer warriors everywhere.

The services Beil and many other cancer patients have received are conveniently located off of Old Henry Road in east Louisville. Beil did not directly receive treatment at Medical Center Northeast, but she has gone to a few appointments there and has a very positive perspective of the facility.

“The facility is brand new, so it’s a very nice facility to have your treatment,” Beil says.

Due to medical regulations during the pandemic, Beil was attending her appointments by herself. She appreciates her doctors at the Brown Cancer Center and shares that their compassion made her feel less alone.

“To be able to have conversations with familiar faces when you’re very vulnerable – I give them a lot of credit at the infusion center,” Beil says.

Beil shares that her doctors and nurses always have great bedside manner.

“Dr. Riley and Dr. Ajkay would make sure to explain everything to me so that I would understand why we were doing what we’re doing, as well as why that was the best course of treatment for my cancer,” Beil says.

Beil shares some powerful advice for others going through cancer treatments.

“Finding a team that you’re comfortable with is important,” Beil says. “You also must advocate for yourself. It can be intimidating to hear all the medical terminology, drug names and treatment options, so as a patient you must know what you’re getting into and ask questions.”

Not only does the Brown Cancer Center offer cutting-edge treatments for cancers, but it also offers a variety of services ranging from support groups to different therapies patients can utilize while on their cancer journey. Beil shares how a few of these services have impacted her personally.

“I love the wrap-around services that the Brown Cancer Center provides,” Beil says. “It’s truly a holistic approach.”

Some of the services that Beil utilized during her time spent with the Brown Cancer Center include partnering with a nutritionist and cognitive therapist, obtaining massages, and participating in art therapy. Beil wholeheartedly believes these services are another aspect of the cancer center that sets it apart from others in the region.

For a full list of services offered at the Brown Cancer Center, and more about the new location, visit uoflbrowncancercenter.org.

In addition to Brown Cancer Center services, UofL Health offers other key services at UofL Health – Medical Center Northeast including:

• UofL Health – Urgent Care Plus
• Sports Medicine Urgent Care
• UofL Health – Frazier Rehabilitation Institute
• Orthopedics
• UofL Health – Comprehensive Spine Center
• Hemophilia Treatment Center
• Healthy Lifestyle Center
• Primary and specialty-care physician practices
• Diagnostic/medical imaging including MRI, PET/CT, CT fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine, X-ray, ultrasound and DEXA/bone density, and EOSedge