Current Cancer Research Projects

July 2005 Groundbreaking Info

SIUC Launches Capital Campaign

FACT SHEET -- SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU School of Medicine

• The SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute is focusing efforts by SIU School of Medicine in cancer research, physician and public education, and treatment for patients from across central and southern Illinois. About 75 SIU physician and basic science faculty are involved in the institute.
  

• The goal of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute is to develop an institute that meets the stringent requirements for a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. NCI designation will allow the SIU's institute to be a full partner in a national network of comprehensive, multi-disciplinary research and patient care centers.
  

• SIU faculty members in both Springfield and Carbondale currently have received single and multi-year national grants for cancer research as well as smaller institutional start-up grants that total $14-plus million. Six core basic scientists are primarily focused on cancer research along with 21 other SIU faculty and physicians who also conduct cancer-related studies.
  

• Ten new cancer research labs are being developed in a research building at the medical school in Springfield. Much of the work is being directed along two thematic pathways -- the molecular pathogenesis of cancer and experimental therapeutics.
  

• One research resource is a new core laboratory facility, which includes a tumor bank and the tissue procurement technology needed to harvest the cancerous cells for study. This research does not help with current patients, but may provide answers that will lead to the cures of tomorrow.
  

• A critical research component of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute is the clinical trials office. Its goal is to substantially increase the number of clinical trials underway in central Illinois, so that patients no longer have to travel to the major metropolitan centers to find the latest drug treatment trials for various cancers. Current trials are underway for breast, gastrointestinal, kidney, and head and neck cancer. We also have access to clinical research protocols sponsored by our affiliated hospitals.
  

• The SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute is developing care focused on the patients, not the providers, in multi-disciplinary clinics modeled after established NCI accredited cancer centers. Organized as "organ site working groups," these clinics use teams of physicians from different disciplines as well as clinical and support staff to provide each patient with complete and coordinated treatment. The multi-disciplinary clinics at the SIU Cancer Institute now include the Breast Center at SIU, Colorectal Cancer Clinic, the Gynecologic Oncology Clinic, the Head and Neck Oncology Team or HANOT, the Hematology and Oncology Clinic, the Melanoma Center, the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic, the Prostate Center, and the Thoracic Oncology Program or TOPS.
  

• The SIU Board of Trustees approved plans for the institute in 2000 and the General Assembly approved $14.5 million in 2002 for design, land acquisition and construction of a building. The School also sold $6 million of revenue bonds in order to increase the total budget for the building.
  

• The permanent facility for the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute in Springfield is being designed to serve as a center for patients from around the state. The design provides a welcoming, secure and uplifting feeling for patients who come to the institute for care, signaling strength and hope with a combination of traditional brick and great expanses of glass. A central 'spine' of glass runs through the building, providing natural light on the upper floor.
  

• The Capital Development Board (CDB) is managing construction of the 60,000 sq. ft. building. It is being designed by Hanson Professional Services of Springfield with consultation from BSA Life Structures of Chicago. Total cost is approximately $21.5 million. Detailed building drawings and specifications are now being finalized and construction bids will be requested in January 2006. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2006 and completed in 2008.
  

• The SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute building will face east on a two-plus acre site, a partial city-block bound by Carpenter, Rutledge and Miller Streets, a few blocks from downtown Springfield. Six medical buildings, five belonging to SIU, are located to the north in the next three blocks along Rutledge. The building will be three stories tall (and partial basement) with its main entrance on the corner of Rutledge and Carpenter. It will consolidate the School's multi-disciplinary cancer clinics, now located in several hospital buildings, along with research and outreach services.
  

• The SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU has a web site at http://www.siumed.edu/cancer/. The main phone number is 217-545-6818.

Note : Two JPG images of the building are available via publicaffairs@siumed.edu or CI looking north or CI looking south