OSF HealthCare is getting closer toward opening its new, $237 million Cancer Institute in early 2024.
And for many cancer patients and their care teams, this new center can't open soon enough.
Because many routine cancer screenings were missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local rates of late-stage diagnoses are way up, according to OSF's director of oncology, Dr. James McGee.
McGee is overseeing the installation of proton beam radiation therapy within the new Cancer Institute.
Last week, McGee and others covered a steel beam with handwritten notes, prayers, drawings, and names of loved ones who died battling cancer. That beam will put put in place during a ceremony on Thursday.
In an interview with WCBU's Hannah Alani, McGee describes the significance of the beam-signing milestone ... and why innovative cancer care can't come to central Illinois soon enough.
The following is a transcript of an interview that aired Monday, April 25 during "On Deck" and "All Things Peoria." It has been edited for length and clarity.
Dr. James McGee: I think [signing the beam] is very straightforwardly a reaffirmation of, 'This is a commitment that's been made by the community and by the healthcare system, and by the friends of the healthcare system, and the physicians that work here,' and so forth. We see cars pulling up with people who don't have any obvious relationship to OSF getting out to sign the beam. And that's really great to see. So I think it's a way of just demonstrating the support that the project has. And that's really critical, obviously.
Hannah Alani: Last we spoke, you described just how critically important the physics of building this thing are. You mentioned the China example ... even if [the proton gun] is just a millimeter off ... that can render the whole project useless. Have we reached that critical point yet?
Dr. James McGee: Well, it's really the proton unit that has that criticality. ... There are checks that the manufacturer of the equipment — Varian — do on the construction. And they have a multi-point checklist of at least 15 critical items, where the metrics have to be exactly precise. And the word was, that Point Core did a better job than anybody else in the history of building these things. So it's a real 'hats off' to PointCore, for a tremendous job in meeting all those specifications.
Hannah Alani: Yeah, that's speaks highly of Peoria, because Varian builds these things all over, right?
Dr. James McGee: All over the world. ... I always say, 'Peoria is really used to big projects, heavy equipment, and it shouldn't be a problem.' And it hasn't been.
Hannah Alani: Detecting cancer early is so key to treatment. And earlier in the pandemic, we reported that there were a lot of lapsed, or missed cancer screenings. I'm wondering, in your clinical practice today, as we, and I hesitate to say ... are 'coming out of the pandemic' ... are you starting to see that come up, in your clinical practice? Are you seeing the ramifications of those missed screenings?
Dr. James McGee: We've never had so many emergency patients as we've had in the last year. Weekends are often spent treating emergency patients with advanced lung tumors, advanced breast cancers, metastatic diseases [that are] really substantial and life threatening.
We were at a phase three years ago, where emergencies like that were fairly unusual and rare. But when you go three years without adequate cancer care, because of the pandemic ... and then have the inertia of getting people back up to speed, in terms of getting that care ... This is the obvious result. And so it's been an unmitigated disaster in terms of cancer rates. Detection at a late stage has really spiked. So we've missed a lot of early cancers. Today, I had a patient who had a suggestion of a tumor on screening, then didn't come in for screening because of the pandemic ... now [they have] an incurable cancer. It happens every week. There's one or two of those cases every week. [That] used to be a rare event. It's not a rare event. And then more than that, it always goes back to the same thing ... 'Well, I didn't want to go out, because of the pandemic.'
Hannah Alani: Are you starting to see that go away, that sentiment? Are you starting to see more people start to feel comfortable coming in for those routine screenings, catching cancers early?
Dr. James McGee: Our screening rates have really picked up. It's got a way to go. But it's probably back to 80% of what it was, in the best of times.
Hannah Alani: If someone's listening to this, and they have missed a routine screening, and they're still feeling that anxiety about coming in and getting checked ... What would be your message to them?
Dr. James McGee: Well, I think if someone's reluctant to come into a healthcare facility where masks are worn and sterilization continues, then they probably would be very unable to realistically justify going anywhere. I think this is the safest place they could come to. So I don't think that's an excuse.
Hannah Alani: And in terms of the cancer center opening ... At this point, what are you personally most excited about?
Dr. James McGee: I don't think 'excitement' is exactly the world. I think it's more the number of things that need to be done before then, and then the exploration of the possibilities with the new equipment. I think there will be a sea change in terms of how we deal with some cancers, and what we think about them. So I think that it's going to be an effort to educate physicians, professionals, and the public about the fact that a lot of the things that we thought were not treatable, or very difficult, or 'bad prognosis' may not continue to be that.
Hannah Alani: Is there anything else at this point that you would like to share with the Peoria community? A message to blast out to our listeners?
Dr. James McGee: Well, the cyclotron is being made in Germany, to fuel the proton. That'll arrive, theoretically, in late July. And I think that's another milestone. Although the cyclotron can be viewed after it's installed, that requires a lot of doing, to shut it down and be able to crawl around, and this and that ... So if you have a chance to come out when it arrives and see it unloaded and put into place, I think that's a nice thing to think about doing in the summertime.
Hannah Alani: That is very cool. We'll definitely have to follow up and get that update out. I would love to see that after hearing and learning so much about it. I really want to see this thing!
Dr. James McGee: We gave the cyclotron a name. I don't think this is official, but I think it's semi-official. The name is 'Marie.' And there's a double entendre there, because sister Frances Marie [Masching] was the head of OSF Healthcare for obviously many years, and was really responsible for starting radiation therapy here at Saint Francis ... for engendering a radiation oncology, radiation therapy atmosphere at many of the centers around the ministry. And then Marie Curie, of course, who was really the starting person in terms of the technical and physics aspects that led to radiation therapy and so forth.
Learn how to get screened for cancer at OSF Healthcare and at UnityPoint Health.
