DANVILLE — New patients to the OSF Bobette Steely Hegeler Cancer Care Center will see the newest technology for radiation treatment.
Radiation Therapist Brigena Butler said one patient who could compare the older equipment to the new linear accelerator, that went live about a month ago, said it is faster.
A blessing and dedication of the new linear accelerator occurred Tuesday afternoon.
OSF HealthCare Sacred Heart Medical Center President Ned Hill said the linear accelerator was made possible in-part thanks to an earlier-announced $3 million contribution from the estate of Danville philanthropist Julius W. Hegeler II. The cancer center is named in honor of Hegeler’s wife, Bobette, who battled cancer.
The cancer center, including its leadership, mission partners and team members and care provided each day, is “a very sacred organization in this community,” and “one of our shining stars in the community,” Hill said.
The TrueBeam® radiotherapy system, a medical linear accelerator developed by Varian Medical Systems, targets tumors quicker and more precisely than the cancer center’s previous linear accelerator, also a Varian device. What was once a 10-to-30 minute session laying down on a hard table now takes only a couple of minutes.
Hill said with less radiation, there are fewer negative effects potentially on patients.
This is the center’s fourth radiation machine. It is more powerful, accurate and safer. Instead of radiating an area that’s two to three inches, it can be two to three centimeters or less, Hill said, about its precision.
Phase 2 in cancer center improvements has already started, to increase the capacity on its medical oncology side. They are expanding the utilization of the space for more exam rooms in preparation for bringing on a second medical oncologist.
“We’re growing that quickly that we really need to expand our service to meet the demand,” Hill said.
They see about 350 new cases a year, and there’s about 13,000 patient visits that come through the center a year.
Crystal Reed, radiation oncologist at the cancer center, said they’re excited to have the new linear accelerator. Patients no longer have to travel outside of Danville to get high-quality, top-of-the-line treatments.
“This is the top-of-the-line linear accelerator from Varian, which is the premier radiation linear accelerator manufacturer,” Reed said. “So the fact that [patients] can have it here in a smaller town makes it such that they don’t have to drive to Champaign-Urbana or Chicago or Louisville or wherever it might be.”
She said the linear accelerator table can move in a lot of different ways to make the treatments more precise.
They have motion management for breathing, to keep the heart out of the radiation field; another cutting-edge feature: respiratory gating.
“It can monitor your breathing so that it can stop the actual treatments if the linear accelerator notes that the lesion being treated moves out of the field,” according to Reed. “You want precision, most of all, all the time in radiation. You want to treat the area that needs to be treated and treat the least amount of normal tissue possible. Because you don’t want people having side effects because of normal tissue being treated when it doesn’t need to be.”
Patients can listen to music, and look at a soothing sky-painted ceiling with trees and clouds.
Medical Oncologist Doctor Jo-Mel Labayog also called the machine “pretty,” with its pearl color and said it’s “Transformers”-like, with arms that move.
He has been at the cancer center for 25 years. His work is his passion, he said.
He said he loves the center because “the community has embraced it and have trusted us to take care of the patients who are in need.”
Labayog too said this is finishing Phase 1 of the cancer center projects. Phase 2 will be more exam rooms to also help in seeing patients quicker, safer and faster.
Installing the new linear accelerator was a months-long process that involved swapping out the machines in the “vault” surrounded by thick concrete so radiation does not escape. Mission Partners (OSF HealthCare employees) at the cancer center also attended a week-long training at Varian Headquarters in Nevada, and Varian representatives were in Danville for the first few treatments to make sure things went well.
Phil Muehl, chairperson of Hegeler Foundation and of the OSF HealthCare Sacred Heart Medical Center Community Council, the hospital’s fundraising body, said Hegeler always had a soft spot for the Danville hospital, so to make this part of his legacy is important.
“It’s critical for the community that we have the latest and greatest technology for cancer. Cancer affects way too many people. And to have the latest technology here locally is important,” Muehl said. “And I’m certain Julius is extremely happy knowing that this money is going to make these improvements to the cancer center.”
Patients and their loved ones can learn more about cancer care at OSF HealthCare online, and patients who think they may be a candidate for linear accelerator treatment can contact the cancer center in Danville.
Gloss