Local cancer patients have had the convenience of getting their radiation treatments performed locally since February 2004 when the Riverside Middle Peninsula Cancer Center opened in Gloucester. Now patients must travel farther for treatments, and efforts are underway to establish the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery patient transportation program here.

The radiation oncology department of the local center temporarily closed in July of this year and is scheduled to reopen in April 2015. The 10-year-old linear accelerator machine that provides radiation treatments is being replaced with a new, state-of-the-art machine.

To accommodate the new technology, the center must expand the thick-walled room in which radiation treatments are delivered. This requires demolition and construction to prepare for the new machine’s arrival in December, and necessitates the temporary closure.  

“It’s a major inconvenience for our patients,” said Paula Dunst...