A diagnosis of cancer affects everything—your health, appearance, energy level, lifestyle, and relationships. That is why Goldschmidt Cancer Center at Capital Region uses a comprehensive team approach to treatment. With access to clinical trials and expertly trained nurses in oncology, Goldschmidt Cancer Center can provide everything for patients and their caregivers—from diagnosis to treatment to recovery and rehabilitation.
Our physicians and nurses are passionate about ensuring every patient is given the very best care while having access to the latest treatments. You can come to Goldschmidt Cancer Center with confidence knowing you have the best care available, right here at home. Our goal is to provide you with well-rounded, total care that includes professional medical services and renders physical and psychological comfort.
Multidisciplinary approach
From diagnosis through treatment and on to survivorship, Capital Region's team of experts is with cancer patients each step of the way. Our innovative team of surgeons, cancer specialists, clinical trials experts, oncology nurses, support providers, and a survivorship navigator work together to provide advanced medicine to overcome a cancer diagnosis.
Reviewed 10/20/2022
Secondhand smoke: True or false?
Even though fewer people are lighting up nationwide, most of us still know someone who smokes. And if you're exposed to their secondhand smoke, you're breathing in more than 7,000 chemicals, including arsenic, ammonia and carbon monoxide. Just how dangerous is this smoke? Test your knowledge now.
True or false: Though it can cause lung irritation, secondhand smoke is unlikely to cause cancer.
False. Even if you don't smoke yourself, you can still get lung cancer by inhaling secondhand smoke. In fact, the U.S. surgeon general estimates that living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker's risk of lung cancer by up to 30%. Secondhand smoke may also raise the risk of breast cancer in women and brain cancer and leukemia in children.
True or false: Smoking and nonsmoking sections of restaurants are effective protection for nonsmokers.
False. Separating smokers from nonsmokers in a restaurant can't completely eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke. And there's no safe level of secondhand smoke. Even low levels can be harmful.
True or false: It's especially important to protect children from secondhand smoke.
True. Babies who breathe in secondhand smoke have a greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome (also known as SIDS). And older children whose parents smoke tend to get sick more often—and they're more likely to get pneumonia. Secondhand smoke can also trigger asthma attacks in kids.
True or false: Opening a car window is enough to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.
False. Even exhaling out the car window does little, if anything, to reduce smoke exposure. So if you smoke—but haven't been able to quit yet—never light up in a car with other people.
True or false: Secondhand smoke can cause heart attacks.
True. Even a brief exposure to secondhand smoke can damage the lining of blood vessels. It can also cause your blood platelets to become stickier. And these changes can trigger a deadly heart attack.
Secondhand smoke can contribute to lung cancer even in nonsmokers.
Sources: American Academy of Family Physicians; American Cancer Society; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Multidisciplinary participation among all experts means patients receive the best care available. Capital Region's team meets regularly to consult one another on the latest in cancer care. Each new cancer case is presented and discussed among the group. This includes providing updates on the patient's treatment, viewing pertinent images and evaluating pathology information.
After each case is reviewed, the team generates a plan, and a letter is sent to the patient's primary care provider to ensure all parties stay up-to-date on the patient's treatment. This time is also used to provide updates on new therapies, interventions or treatment protocols that will or might influence care.
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FAQs
A diagnosis of cancer is usually a life-changing experience for patients and their loved ones. As they seek treatment for their disease, cancer patients need to know that they are receiving safe and appropriate care. To achieve ACR-ASTRO accreditation, our facility's personnel qualifications, equipment requirements, quality assurance and quality control procedures have gone through a rigorous review process and have met specific qualifications. It is important for patients to know that every aspect of the ACR-ASTRO accreditation process is overseen by board-certified, expert radiation oncologists and medical physicists.
- Our facility has voluntarily gone through a vigorous review process to ensure that we meet nationally-accepted standards of care.
- Our personnel are well-qualified, through education and certification, to administer your radiation therapy treatments.
- Our equipment is appropriate for the treatment you will receive, and our facility meets or exceeds quality assurance and safety guidelines.
When you see the ACR-ASTRO seal, you can rest assured that your treatment will be done at a facility that has met the highest level of quality and radiation safety. The facility and its personnel have gone through a comprehensive review to earn accreditation status by the American College of Radiology (ACR), a national professional organization serving more than 34,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians and medical physicists as well as the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), a professional organization serving more than 10,000 radiation oncologists, medical physicists and other healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of cancer patients.