Peoria Diocese bishop blesses OSF cancer institute
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The official blessing of the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute, located on the campus of OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, was conducted by the Most Rev. Louis Tylka, Bishop of the Peoria Diocese on Tuesday, Feb. 13, according to a news release.
The OSF Cancer Institute will be a one-stop destination for a patient’s cancer journey.
“The greatest difference that will happen in this building in comparison to many other centers, is that we’ve brought everything together. All of the therapies with the clinicians, together with support services and survivorship, together with the kitchen and nutrition,” says Robert Sehring, CEO of OSF HealthCare. “It’s the ability to bring all of those pieces together and have people collaborate. Whether it’s a tumor board, working through a diagnosis or treatment plan. We’re doing all of that to meet the needs of the patients that are going to come here.”
One of the new treatments happening inside the OSF Cancer Institute is proton beam therapy. This will be the only center outside of Chicago and St. Louis offering proton therapy in the region. Dr. James McGee, founding director of the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute, says this treatment is less invasive than current treatments being offered.
“It’s where a packet of energy with positively charged proton particles is used to go to one spot of the tumor and treat that spot of the tumor,” McGee says. “We’re able to go anywhere in the tumor. Very little dose on the entry side, and no dose on the exit side. Using all of that, we can corral the radiation into the tumor and reduce the dose of radiation to the normal and healthy tissues that we don’t want to get incidental radiation, like the lymph nodes and things where the immune response is being mounted to that cancer.”
The proton beam therapy is powered by a Varian ProBeam® 360° System cyclotron. McGee says the ability to rotate the System 360° allows the technology to target cancer from any angle.
“We know the biological effect of protons is often felt to be at least 10% higher than with X-ray therapy. That gets factored into treatment planning. We also know the ability to give these treatments in a way that doesn’t affect the immune system, allows the actual radiation treatment to be more effective,” McGee says. “We’re seeing more and more evidence that there is better tumor control in certain situations. People are not failing that would’ve failed at those doses with X-ray therapy. Also, we’re not generating secondary cancers from the radiation.”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
