Hospital announces new cancer care center
Anderson to partner with national research center
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| Elizabeth A. Lehnerer photo -- David Shanahan, Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers president and CEO (left), accepts a check for $75,000 from Allen Cassens of Edwardsville. The money, donated through Allison's Friends of Hope Foundation, will be used toward Mary Crowley cancer research at Anderson Hospital in Maryville. |
When Anderson Hospital in Maryville opens its Comprehensive Cancer Care Center in September, cancer patients will have access to traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy. But the center will also offer cutting-edge research and investigative therapies thanks to a partnership with Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers.
Based in Dallas, Mary Crowley is a national leader in cancer research. Mary Crowley focuses on non-toxic treatments, including gene-targeted therapies, cell-based therapies and vaccines, all of which do not harm patients' existing healthy tissue and system.The nearest Mary Crowley center is in Dayton, Ohio, and although nearby hospitals may provide cancer research or trials, Mary Crowley trials are highly innovated and unique.
But with hundreds of hospitals from throughout the Midwest to choose from, why would Mary Crowley research come to Maryville? Edwardsville residents Allen and Linda Cassens are to thank.
At 32, the Cassens' daughter, Allison, was diagnosed with colon cancer and was ultimately treated by the Mary Crowley center in Dallas.
Although she was only given five weeks to live, Allison survived for 14 months. In that time she started Allison's Friends of Hope -- a non-profit foundation geared toward raising funds for cancer research, and served as an inspiration for her family and the doctors at Mary Crowley.
"She had an amazing spirit and an amazing message that encouraged all of us to come back to Illinois to look and see what we could do," said David Shanahan, Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers president and CEO. "When Anderson was going to build a cancer center it just gave us a wonderful opportunity to join together."
"Mary Crowley and Anderson Hospital is a combination of her dreams," said a tearful Linda Cassens. "I know that there's one happy angel today and she's smiling down thinking of all her friends who've made this possible."
The Cassens presented Shanahan and Anderson Hospital with a check for $75,000 to go toward cancer research in Maryville at a press conference on Wednesday.
Shanahan said that Mary Crowley works by gathering investigation therapies that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and supplying those therapies to clinics around the country.
"We expand Anderson's possibilities for cures and also give their doctors a wide variety of cures to help their patients," he said.
Shanahan said that there are currently 25 to 40 trials available to doctors who have cancer patients that have exhausted their options through standard care.
Dr. John Visconti, of Illinois Oncology Limited in Maryville who will serve as the "principal investigator" at the cancer center, said that research is a major focus for any cancer center and that it is imperative to complement scientifically proven invasive therapies like chemotherapy and radiation with clinical trials.
"Mary Crowley Cancer Center research is going to provide us with 21st century high-tech research opportunities that can aid us in helping our patients live longer, have better quality of life and have the possibility of a cure," he said. "We're very honored and excited to have this relationship."
Along with the traditional cancer treatments and innovative treatments through Mary Crowley, Keith Page, Anderson Hospital president and CEO, said that the 26,000-square-foot center located at the corner of Illinois Route 162 and Vadalabene in Maryville, will include patient and family resources like dietary counseling, psychologists, rehabilitation specialist, a retail center, lab services, patient education resource center, a clinic and a chapel.
Anderson Hospital will pay tribute to its many donors on Sept. 27, when the cancer center's name in unveiled at a special event.
For more information on Allison Cassens' Friends of Hope organization visit www.allisonsfriendsofhope.org.
