Cancer treatment options to expand

Aiming to bring more advanced treatment options to cancer patients in Boston's northern suburbs, Northeast Health System has tapped a top cancer specialist from Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to oversee oncology services at Beverly Hospital.

Dr. Keith Stuart, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of Beth Israel's gastroenterology and liver cancer departments, will head Beverly Hospital's recently expanded oncology center, hospital officials said.

Among the programs Stuart intends to start in Beverly this fall is a less-invasive treatment for prostate cancer that involves the implantation of radioactive seeds, said Beth Israel spokeswoman Margaret Pantridge.

Beverly's affiliation with Beth Israel, which began more than a year ago, recently helped the community hospital add genetic counseling for breast cancer patients to the services it offers at its Hunt Center in Danvers.

Northeast Health System's stepped-up cancer services are being introduced amidst a tense battle for turf in the region between Northeast, which includes Beverly Hospital and the Addison Gilbert in Gloucester, and its much-larger competitor, North Shore Medical Center, which includes hospitals in Salem and Lynn. North Shore is part of Partners HealthCare, the parent corporation of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Both hospital chains have announced plans to open multimillion-dollar outpatient care centers in Danvers. Earlier this year, Partners threatened to cut Northeast out of a lucrative affiliation agreement because Northeast had been sending patients requiring advanced care to hospitals outside the Partners network.

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com.