Cancer care in the Cuauhtémoc region: you no longer have to travel to the capital

If you or someone in your family has been diagnosed with cancer, it is natural for one of the first questions to be where to get treated. For many years, in Cuauhtémoc and the colonies of the region, the answer was almost automatic: in Chihuahua City. Today that answer is changing, and we want to tell you what that means for you.

What those 105 kilometers really cost

On paper, 105 kilometers seem like little: an hour and a half on the highway. But cancer treatment is not a single trip. It is consultations, tests, chemotherapy sessions that repeat every two or three weeks for months, lab work before each cycle, and follow-up visits afterward.

When every one of those visits means going all the way to the capital, the bill grows fast:

• Physical exhaustion. Traveling three hours round trip on the same day as a chemotherapy session is draining for the patient, who often comes home with nausea or weakness.
• Expenses no one sees. Gas or bus fare, meals away from home, sometimes a night in a hotel, and the workday lost by the family member who goes along.
• Family logistics. Someone has to stay with the children, look after the ranch, the business, or the orchard. Every trip moves the whole family.
• The risk of interrupting treatment. This is the most serious one. Studies carried out in Mexico and Latin America have documented that distance to the hospital and travel expenses are among the factors most strongly associated with abandoning cancer treatment. When the money or the strength is not enough for the trip, some patients stop going. And in cancer, staying with the treatment matters a great deal.

Bringing care closer is not just a convenience: it is a way of protecting the treatment so it gets completed.

What cancer care already exists in the region?

At the Unidad de Oncología Menonita, the Mennonite cancer center here in Cuauhtémoc, we have two oncologists —one specialized in medical oncology and one specialist in gynecologic oncology— and the services that cover most of a cancer patient's journey:

• Evaluation and follow-up consultations with certified oncologists.
• Biopsies and tests to confirm or rule out a diagnosis.
• Chemotherapy at the unit, without traveling for each cycle.
• Immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and hormone therapy, as each case requires.
• Cancer surgery, including surgery for gynecologic tumors.
• Palliative care, to control pain and symptoms and to protect quality of life at any stage of the illness.

This means that many people from Cuauhtémoc, the Mennonite colonies, Álvaro Obregón, Anáhuac, Guerrero, La Junta, and nearby communities can receive most of their treatment minutes from home, in their own region, close to their people.

And what is still handled in Chihuahua City?

Being honest about this is also a way of caring for you: radiation therapy is not performed at our unit, because it requires equipment that today exists only in Chihuahua City. When a patient needs radiation therapy, we refer them and coordinate that stage with the centers in the capital.

The difference is in how that process is lived. Instead of the family navigating the whole treatment far from home on their own, the traveling is limited to the stage that truly requires it, with an organized medical file, clear instructions, and an oncologist in Cuauhtémoc who remains responsible for your case before, during, and after.

Why does getting treated close to home matter?

Beyond saving trips, being cared for in the region has advantages that families notice quickly:

• The patient rests in their own bed after each session.
• The family can be there without taking their daily life apart.
• If a discomfort or question comes up between cycles, the treating doctor is minutes away, not 105 kilometers.
• Follow-up after treatment —which lasts for years— becomes much easier to carry.

How do I know if my case can be treated in the region?

Every diagnosis is different, and only a medical evaluation can determine what treatment you need and where each stage is best carried out. What we can tell you is that today you no longer have to assume that the whole journey runs through the capital.

If you or a loved one has a cancer diagnosis, a suspicion, or test results waiting to be reviewed, book an evaluation with our oncologists. Message us on WhatsApp at 614 120 2911 and we will gladly guide you on the first step.

Sources:

• National Cancer Institute (U.S.), resources in Spanish: https://www.cancer.gov/espanol
• Medscape in Spanish, study in Mexico linking treatment abandonment, geographic distance, and access: https://espanol.medscape.com/viewarticle/no-es-leucemia-es-acceso-estudio-m%C3%A9xico-vincula-2026a10005w9
• Revista Colombiana de Cancerología / SciELO, strategies to prevent cancer treatment abandonment in developing countries: https://scielo.iics.una.py/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1683-98032013000200002

This content is for information purposes and does not replace a medical consultation.