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Ground Broken for SIU Cancer Institute in Springfield

Ground has been broken for a permanent facility for the new SIU Cancer Institute in Springfield. The new building has been designed to serve as a center of care and hope for patients from around the state as well as a dramatic new front door entrance to the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine campus in Springfield.

"Today we are continuing our efforts to build the human and physical infrastructure necessary to meet future medical care needs in central and southern Illinois," said SIU President James E. Walker, who participated in the groundbreaking on July 14. "The physicians who will work in these new clinics and the cancer researchers who will be using these state-of-the-art laboratories offer great hope in advancing the care and treatment of cancer patients."

The Cancer Institute will face east on a partial city block (two-plus acres) 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.

"Our goal for the Cancer Institute is to develop a comprehensive cancer care program that builds on existing cancer expertise here at SIU and in Springfield so that we can quickly translate laboratory research results to state-of-the-art treatment and compassionate care for children and adults with cancer," said Dr. J. Kevin Dorsey, Ph.D., dean and provost.

The Capital Development Board (CDB) will manage 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 being finalized and construction bids will be requested in February. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2006 and completed in 2007.

"This building gives us the physical base we need to develop an extensive cancer care program, based on National Cancer Institute (NCI) guidelines," said Dr. K. Thomas Robbins, the institute's interim director. "As we build the facility and the institute, our focus will include finding innovative and effective strategies for relieving the cancer burden in rural populations in Illinois."

The building for the institute will be three stories tall 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 service programs.

Chemotherapy suites will be on the first floor along with two clinics to be used by SIU's organ site working groups, teams of cancer specialists and subspecialists. The institute's administrative offices will be on the second floor. The area will house an outreach center, focused on activities for downstate Illinois such as epidemiology studies and public and physician education.

The facility also will house a clinical trials office, which coordinates research involving patients, including national drug trials. Sixteen different clinical trials are currently underway.

The third floor will contain translational and bench research labs where research scientists and physicians can work together, and offices for researchers and support staff. The labs will augment the eight new cancer research labs already developed in existing medical school buildings. [Translational research focuses on understanding the basic molecular mechanism of the formation of tumors (known as tumorigenesis) as well as identifying markers for early detection.]

While the building is being finalized, other efforts for the institute are proceeding. The institute completed a major recruitment in June for an associate director for basic science with the hiring of a National Cancer Institute-funded cancer researcher from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center -- Subhas Chakrabarty, Ph.D. Chakrabarty's primary responsibility is the development of a complete cancer research team, which can compete successfully for external funding. Three new basic science researchers also have been hired, bringing the total to six new cancer researchers.

SIU faculty members in Springfield and Carbondale continue to apply for new cancer research grants. Currently, they have received single and multi-year national grants for cancer research as well as smaller institutional start-up grants that total $10,586,808 million.

The Cancer Institute is focusing the medical school's efforts in cancer research, physician and public education, and treatment for patients from across central and southern Illinois. More than 55 SIU physician and basic science faculty are involved.

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

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

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