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Siteman Cancer Center to open Jan. 13 at Memorial Hospital East

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Siteman Cancer Center, the region’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, will open its doors to patients Jan. 13 at Memorial Hospital East in Shiloh, Ill. Siteman Cancer Center is based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and the new location is Siteman’s sixth in the region.

Siteman Cancer Center at Memorial Hospital East, 1418 Cross St., will provide oncology services as well as a pathway for patients to participate in clinical trials. Siteman offers 450 therapeutic trials evaluating innovative cancer therapies. By participating in a clinical trial, patients can gain access to investigational therapies that are not widely available to the public.

With the new location, Siteman cements its commitment to central and southern Illinois, while providing access to the latest cancer care.

“We look forward to welcoming patients to this new facility,” said Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, Siteman’s director and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor at the School of Medicine. “At Siteman, we’re committed to delivering outstanding cancer care to patients, in a comfortable and convenient setting. We believe strongly in a team approach to cancer care, and our Washington University physicians provide tremendous expertise and experience in treating all types of cancer, even those that are considered rare.”

As an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Siteman is recognized internationally for its scientific leadership, resources, and breadth and depth of clinical and laboratory cancer research. At Memorial East, the cancer center will occupy 39,000 square feet of a $38 million medical office building. Funding for the new facility, which will include a diagnostic laboratory and pharmacy, comes from BJC HealthCare, which owns and operates Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Memorial Hospital East.

Clinical cancer care at Siteman’s Memorial Hospital East location will be provided by Washington University Physicians in Illinois Inc. Siteman has been operating at 4000 N. Illinois Lane in Swansea on an interim basis since 2018. The new facility is five miles to the east.

Medical oncologist William J. Popovic, MD, will continue as medical director. Susan Laduzinsky, MD, a radiation oncologist, will continue as director of radiation oncology. Other care providers are medical oncologists Alfred O. Greco, MD; Guillermo Rodriguez Jr., MD; John L. Visconti, DO; Nishant Poddar, MD, and nurse practitioner Alicia Carmack. In addition to Laduzinsky, the radiation oncology team includes Jason Lee, MD, PhD, and nurse practitioner Rhonda McCabe. The physicians are on the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine.

The facility is designed to be soothing and inviting. It will feature a healing garden and paintings by noted regional artists Steven & Cheryl Ward, Benjamin Lowder, Jessica Hitchcock, Samantha Bryant and Jeff Hirsch.

New technology available at Siteman at Memorial East will include:

  • A linear accelerator, a machine that creates high-energy radiation to treat cancer.
  • A computed tomography (CT) scanner, which combines multiple X-ray images so tumors and their positions in the body can be easily seen.

Siteman’s location at Memorial East will enable Illinois patients to receive advanced cancer care closer to home. If patients require highly specialized cancer care, such as bone marrow transplants or proton therapy, Siteman will help facilitate care at its main location in St. Louis.

Aside from strengths in cancer care and research, Siteman is committed to lessening the burden of cancer on communities and the region. A team of Washington University epidemiologists and population health experts, for example, recently received a $7.6 million NCI grant to develop ways to implement proven cancer-control interventions among disadvantaged rural and urban populations in 82 counties in southern Illinois and Missouri.

Siteman’s combined focus on cancer prevention, research and clinical care makes the cancer center a perfect fit for Memorial Hospital East and the region’s residents, said Mark J. Turner, president of Memorial Regional Health Services Inc., which includes Memorial Hospital East and Memorial Hospital Belleville.

“We are very excited to bring Siteman Cancer Center to the Memorial East campus,” he said. “Our collaboration provides world-class cancer care to residents throughout the region in a more convenient setting closer to home.”

Every year, more than 450 Washington University physicians treat 70,000 people at Siteman, including 12,000 newly diagnosed patients, making it one of the largest and most specialized cancer centers in the United States.

“What a privilege it is to be in southern Illinois,” Eberlein said. “Siteman at Memorial East will offer a welcoming, calming environment where patients will receive the most advanced cancer care. This includes access to state-of-the-art technology and to hundreds of clinical trials offering investigational cancer therapies, which are largely unavailable elsewhere in the region, except at other Siteman locations.”

Registered nurses coordinate care at all Siteman facilities through the Patient Care Coordination Center. To make an appointment, call 800-600-3606 toll-free from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays, or fill out this web form.