Hospital announces plan for regional cancer center

Southeast Missouri Hospital will build a $33 million cancer center on its west campus, president and hief executive officer James Wente announced today.

The two-level Regional Cancer Center will house a pharmacy, cafe, on-site lab, office space for physicians, resource library, pastoral care office, meeting rooms and educational and counseling services.

Technology will include two linear accelerators to treat cancerous tumors, high dose-rate internal radiation therapy that involves placing radioactive sources inside or adjacent to the tumor, MRIs that scan the body and a system for digital imaging. Additional space will be available for future expansion.

Wente said the 49,200-square-foot facility will take over for another building used as a cancer center since 1981.

"With the latest technology, we felt like rather than remodel and grow in the space that had been there for nearly 30 years and to better serve our aging population in this area, this was a perfect time to relocate cancer services to the west campus," Wente said. "... This offers people more hope for this deadly disease."

In 2007, 665 patients received treatment at the hospital's cancer center. Of those, 609 were patients with newly diagnosed cases of cancer.

Wente said that because baby boomers make up a significant portion of the 600,000 residents living in 22 Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois counties, the current cancer center was becoming too small to handle the patient load.

The new facility is scheduled for a December 2010 opening. Wente said he hopes to break ground sometime this year.

Hospital board chairman James Rust said the new cancer center will further enhance the property at its west campus, which is home to a medical center.

"We believe this will be a very attractive facility from a visual standpoint," Rust said. "People will see the cancer center, and that visual picture will be etched in their minds because of its contemporary design."

Joseph Miller, radiation oncologist for 18 years at the hospital, said the new facility will improve what he believes is an already excellent cancer treatment program.

"The hospital has had an all-encompassing vision that provides that latest technology and care of the patient who is experiencing a long and difficult process," Miller said. "This new center will provide the best care possible for patients who no longer will have to travel hundreds of miles to receive treatment. They'll receive state-of-the-art care at the cancer center."

Brian Pansing of Pansing, Nolan and Matlock, the architectural firm that designed the center, said his staff strived to make the patient experience "a seamless, comfortable one." For example, a planted roof will resemble a meadow with flowers, native grasses and shrubbery, he said.

Southeast Missouri Hospital has a long history of efforts to fight cancer.

The hospital bought the region's first cobalt-60 teletherapy unit in 1967. Fourteen years later, the construction of a $3 million regional cancer center was completed.

In 2002, positron emission tomography was added, providing physicians with data to help diagnose and determine stages of cancer.

Other recent accomplishments included the opening of a breast care and diagnostic center at 60 Doctors' Park, robotic-assisted surgery to treat prostate cancer and an X-ray therapy system designed to treat skin cancer.

Wente hopes the new cancer center will hire more oncologists. Four oncologists are on staff, three on a part-time basis.

Wente said the hospital's long-term goal is five full-time oncologists. He added that offers have been made to potential candidates.

"When it comes to cancer, there's a four-letter word that we need to look for -- hope," Wente said. "It takes more than a building.

"It takes people in a building. We are striving for world-class cancer treatment in Cape Girardeau, and this goes a long way."

bblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137

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