Planting the Seeds of Prevention - Siteman Cancer Center

Highlights
Jeffrey Bradley, MD, was recently installed as S. Lee Kling
Endowed Chair in Radiation Oncology.
Unique Radiation
Treatment Center
Construction is under way at the Siteman Cancer Center
on a proton therapy facility that could revolutionize the
way this unique treatment is delivered.
Although proton therapy is not new, the cost of
building a facility — including an immense cyclotron to
generate charged particles — has been prohibitive for most
cancer centers and hospitals around the country, requiring
an investment of $100 million to $150 million. Only six
proton therapy facilities currently operate in the United
States, with one more set to open this year.
The new S. Lee Kling Center for Proton Therapy,
scheduled to open in 2010, will be the first in the nation
featuring a new-generation technology that costs about
$20 million. Siteman is working with Still River Systems Inc.
of Littleton, Mass., to build a cyclotron that fits into a space
not much bigger than what’s needed to house traditional
radiation therapy equipment.
“This will change the scope of facilities that use
protons,” says Washington University School of Medicine
radiation oncologist Jeffrey Bradley, MD, who has been
named director of the Kling Center.
18 The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center
Unlike traditional X-ray radiation, proton therapy
deposits its maximum dose at the site of a tumor and
doesn’t go beyond that point, resulting in less damage
to surrounding healthy tissue.
The proton facility is named for the late S. Lee Kling, a
prominent St. Louis businessman and philanthropist. His
efforts helped raise $2.3 million through the Barnes-Jewish
Hospital Foundation’s illumination gala to fund research
into applications of proton therapy.
New Research Building
Construction continues on the BJC Institute of Health
at Washington University, which will serve as home base
for the University’s BioMed 21 initiative. The 11-story,
700,000-square-foot facility will house laboratories for
research aimed at rapidly applying basic science findings
to improve patient care. Among other occupants, the
institute will provide space for five interdisciplinary
research centers, including one focusing on cancer
genomics. BJC HealthCare contributed a $30 million
gift toward the estimated $235 million cost of the project.
The building is scheduled to open in December 2009.