St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville
to open cancer care center

By Mary Ann Wyand

MOORESVILLE— Comprehensive cancer treatments with state-of-the-art medical technology will be available on March 1 at St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville.

St. Francis Hospital officials dedicated the new cancer care center at Mooresville on Feb. 12 and are preparing to serve patients from Morgan and Hendricks counties next month.

The new cancer care center means that Mooresville area residents won’t have to drive more than a half hour to St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis or other hospitals to receive radiation therapy and other oncology treatments.

Keith Jewell, executive director of St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville, said on Feb. 12 that the $4.5 million cancer care center is a much-anticipated part of the $20.8 million hospital expansion project approved by board members in 2002.

“We undertook a large planning activity in 2001 to understand the health-care needs of residents in northern Morgan and Hendricks counties,” Jewell said. “Aside from heart services, which was the largest need, cancer treatment came in number two in this community.”

Jewell said the survey found that Mooresville area residents requiring cancer treatments had to leave Hendricks County about 11,000 times in 2001 to receive various oncology services.

“Hendricks County has grown by 14 percent over the past three years,” he said, “and northern Morgan County has grown by about 10 percent in that time so that’s a significant [population] growth” in need of comprehensive health-care services.

“Cancer is an emotional journey and a very complex disease,” Jewell said. “We will now have the opportunity to provide for the patient’s medical oncology needs, surgical oncology needs and radiation therapy needs … right here in their own community. I think that’s going to be very helpful for the patients and their families.”

Patricia Wolfla, director of cancer services for the St. Francis Hospitals in Beech Grove, Indianapolis and Mooresville, said the new cancer care center will provide continuity in outpatient care among the three hospital campuses.

“It’s estimated that one in three living Americans will experience cancer in their lifetimes,” Wolfla said. “For every new cancer diagnosis, there are eight patients that are surviving or in the process of managing this chronic illness.

“But the progress in oncology over the last 10 to 15 years has really changed to some degree how people look at a cancer diagnosis,” she said. “They used to get a diagnosis and it was life-threatening.

“Now, with good science and, I think, good care today, 62 percent of all cancers diagnosed in this country have a minimum of five years survival [rate],” Wolfla said. “So we’re doing much better in dealing with cancer as a chronic illness. That also means we’re doing a better job at identifying cancers earlier, such as breast cancer and colorectal polyp evaluation. There is good science that helps us understand how to take care of ourselves—what we call screening and wellness—and there are more effective tools today that benefit us in a much higher quality of life.”

Jewell said the new cancer center will offer physics planning, where physicists and physicians will identify how treatment will be given to patients. They will utilize a computerized simulator to plan and test treatment options prior to the use of radiation.

He said the center’s state-of-the-art Varian computerized linear accelerator, which provides intensity modulated radiation therapy, allows radiation beams to be shaped to treat tumors anywhere in the body.

“We also wanted to have a place where nutrition counselors, home health workers and chaplains can visit with patients,” he said. “We prefer that the patients be able to stay here in the cancer center, and we will bring resources and treatment to them as opposed to having them walk all through the hospital campus.”

Jewell said the cancer center’s 9,000-square-foot outpatient clinic will accommodate more than 150 new patients a year.

The new cancer care center is welcome news for St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville mail clerk Janie Cochran-McClusky, a breast cancer survivor who had to drive to St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis for oncology treatments. She is happy other cancer patients will feel right at home and be close to home in the new center. †