Fox Chase Cancer Center Names Bergman Medical Director for Complementary Medicine Program

PHILADELPHIA (June 18, 1999) -- Cynthia A. Bergman, M.D., has been named medical director of Complete Care, the Complementary Medicine Program of Fox Chase Cancer Center. She has served as acting medical director since the program opened in September 1998.

Complete Care is designed to help people with cancer improve their quality of life during and after cancer treatment. The program supplements traditional cancer therapies with additional approaches to help people cope with side effects of cancer treatment, stress, changing body image and functional problems requiring cancer-specific rehabilitation medicine and care.

"Complementary medicine is the next logical step in the treatment of cancer patients," said Dr. Bergman. "This program focuses on rebuilding the physical, emotional and psychological lives of our patients, further enhancing the overall care here at Fox Chase."

Not only Fox Chase patients but also patients receiving primary cancer treatment elsewhere are eligible to use Complete Care. In addition to being the region's only complementary medicine program focused on cancer-related problems, it is one of very few such programs in the nation.

A gynecologic oncologist in the Center's department of surgical oncology, Bergman treats women who have cancer of the ovary, uterus or cervix or other cancers of the reproductive system. She sees a variety of patients, ranging from those with early tumors of the uterus to women with more advanced cancers that require more extensive treatment.

Bergman also works with healthy women enrolled in the Margaret Dyson Family-Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase. This program is for women who have increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer because one or more first-degree relatives have had one of these cancers. Bergman helps provide the ongoing screening these women receive at Fox Chase.

Before joining Fox Chase in 1997, Bergman was affiliated with Temple University Medical Center, where she taught medical students along with seeing patients.

Bergman earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Dartmouth College in 1985 and her M.D. from Georgetown University in 1989. She finished her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Rush-Presbyterian - St. Luke's Medical Center of Chicago in 1993 and a fellowship at the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1996.

Fox Chase Cancer Center is one of 35 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the nation. The Center's activities include basic and clinical research; prevention, detection and treatment of cancer; and community outreach programs.