Hattiesburg Cancer Survivor Says Forrest General Cancer Center Treatment Was Best Decision He Ever Made
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – (March 12, 2024) All you have to do is ask Jerry Moore of Hattiesburg about his experience at the Forrest General Cancer Center, and he’s off and running, leaving a trail of accolades in his wake.
As the Forrest General Cancer Center celebrates its 25th anniversary, Moore is just one of the center’s success stories, of which there are countless numbers. Moore is so impressed with the care he received; he has no problem reassuring others who might be facing an uncertain future like he once did.
Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021 during the height of COVID-19, Moore, 63, had just come through open heart surgery and gotten back healthy and on his feet when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “It was just a routine office visit,” he said. “And kind of a shock that really makes you start looking at things. I found out on the birthday of my mother, who had recently passed away. That was kind of unsettling.”
Moore met with radiation oncologist, Joseph Salloum, MD, and his nurse, Joyce Rogers, RN, to discuss the treatment plan moving forward, which was brachytherapy.
Brachytherapy, or seed implantation, is a type of radiation therapy in which radioactive metallic seeds — smaller than a grain of rice — are permanently placed exactly where the cancer is located, thus protecting other tissue and organs. For prostate cancer, the seeds are placed inside the prostate, where the therapy delivers a high dose of radiation directly to the prostate gland. This type of procedure is used for the treatment of early stage prostate cancer, but it can also be used as part of a treatment paired with external beam radiation for men with more advanced prostate cancer. Salloum has performed more than 2,500 of these procedures.
When I walked in, “it was like I didn’t go meet with a stranger; they made me feel very welcomed…very warm and cordial,” Moore said. As the date was set for his procedure, Moore kept thinking there was some significance to that date, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Three or four days later he remembers waking up at 4 a.m., pretty certain of the date’s significance. “I got up and got out, and I went by the cemetery,” he said. “That date, the day for my scheduled procedure, was 40 years to the day when my dad died of cancer that started in his prostate. You start adding things up… I beat the heart problem; on my mom’s birthday, I’m sitting across from a doctor who is telling me I definitely have cancer; and then I’m going to do my seed implant on the day (40 years later) that my dad died. So, you can imagine. I wasn’t a little worried or concerned, I was a basket case!”
Because COVID-19 was raging, some procedures were put off for months. Moore’s surgery was able to take place as he continued on his path to getting better.
He said the first day he arrived for external beam radiation, which accompanied the seed implant, it probably took him 10 minutes to get from his vehicle through the front doors of the Cancer Center.
He remembers walking in the front door and somebody saying, “Good morning, Mr. Moore. How are you doing? ‘And I looked over and it is the lady at the front desk who I’ve never met. Obviously they have my photo, but from that point on, everybody that I dealt with was just very professional. They are the highest caliber of people in their craft. They were so concerned, and so interested in me and what I was going through and what they were doing. “At every point, they would stop and explain what was going on,” he said. “They bent over backwards.”
Moore explained his father had cancer 40 years prior when there wasn’t a Cancer Center in Hattiesburg at the time. He had to drive to Jackson until he got so sick he had to stop. He ended up at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas.
Moore said when he first found out he had cancer, he and his wife, who is from Houston, talked. “Look, I think I’m just going to go out there and not even start anything here,” he told her. He even talked to his local urologist who said he would do whatever he could for him if that is what Moore decided to do. “But he told me he thought I should at least visit and talk to the people at the Cancer Center and hear what they could do.”
“And it’s the best decision I could have made,” Moore said. “At no point did I wait more than 10 minutes from when I walked in until I was in the back getting my treatment. How they keep it flowing like that I don’t know.” He wishes others knew the trick.
Since then, he’s had no problems, even though Dr. Salloum told him, “Everything has gone very well. Keep in mind, this is cancer. You can look up one day, and it can be back.”
While Moore was going for PSA checkups with his urologist every six months to make sure everything was on track, those visits have now been extended to once a year. Moore and his family members – his wife, children, and grandchildren – still enjoy hiking in the mountains, something even Moore finds manageable with bad knees.
“It’s easy for me to sit down with somebody locally and tell them, ‘Look, you are going to get great treatment right here in Hattiesburg,” he said. “Anybody I know who might be facing the same issues, I go to them and tell them they don’t need to worry.’”
“I have a friend who just finished treatment, the same as I had,” he said. “It felt good that I could go to him in that time before treatment started, sit down with him and say, ‘Man, these folks are great. And they are going to help you. Just keep your head up. Keep the faith. That’s something I remember hearing over and over, ‘Keep the faith!’”
Jerry Moore is doing just that.
For more information, visit ForrestHealth.org/cancer.
ABOUT FORREST GENERAL CANCER CENTER
Forrest General Hospital Cancer Center ranks among the largest and most sophisticated cancer treatment centers in South Mississippi. It offers a place where patients can receive advanced care in a beautiful, compassionate environment. Forrest General operates the only comprehensive community Cancer Center in the 19-county service area, and is accredited by the College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. The center features the services of a multidisciplinary team led by medical oncologists/hematologists and radiation oncologists, who provide high quality medical care in a continuum of settings. In addition to medical and radiation oncologists, a complete range of physician specialists provide expertise in diagnoses, surgical removal, disease management and reconstructive procedures.
