August 24, 2001
 Timothy J. Eberlein, M.D., director of the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and cancer survivor Gwendolyn Randall look at an artist's rendering of the Siteman Cancer Center at the announcement of its becoming a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center. |
The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) has received national recognition by becoming a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center.
The Siteman Cancer Center is the only institution to receive National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation in Missouri and within a 240-mile radius of St. Louis. The milestone recognizes the breadth, depth and balance of activities by researchers, clinicians and staff seeking to advance cancer knowledge, increase cancer screenings and ultimately to improve cancer care.
Siteman Cancer Center comprises the combined cancer-related programs of BJH and the medical school and is named in recognition of benefactors Alvin J. and Ruth Siteman. The NCI designation comes in the form of a special federal Cancer Center grant given to the medical school for basic and clinical cancer research and cancer-prevention programs.
"We are deeply honored to achieve this distinction for the extraordinary work of the researchers, clinicians and staff affiliated with Siteman Cancer Center," said Timothy J. Eberlein, M.D., director of Siteman Cancer Center. "Receiving NCI designation is a tremendous acknowledgement of our ability to make a difference in the fight against cancer in the St. Louis community and beyond."
As part of the NCI designation announced last week, Siteman Cancer Center will be the beneficiary of a new $4 million federal grant to the School of Medicine. The grant will facilitate further multidisciplinary research, including clinical research and clinical trials that often occur within BJH or Siteman Cancer Center clinical spaces. This new NCI grant is in addition to the more than $80 million in cancer research and related training grants currently held by the school's more than 240 researchers and physician-scientists affiliated with the Siteman Cancer Center.
NCI designation is based on the center's ability to address complicated questions related to the cause and progression of cancer through the school's excellent programs in basic and clinical research. New information gained through the endeavors of Siteman Cancer Center-affiliated faculty and staff will help reduce the burden of cancer locally and nationally by leading to improved strategies for cancer prevention, detection and treatment. This process is enhanced by scientists' and physicians' access to the most advanced research tools and techniques, a close association between state-of-the-art research and clinical care, and the ability to address regional and national cancer concerns.
"NCI designation recognizes the outstanding medical research and patient care by Washington University faculty affiliated with Siteman Cancer Center as well as the success of the longstanding partnership between Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine," said William A. Peck, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the medical school. "We now have the opportunity to bring cancer research from the laboratory to the bedside even quicker, thereby continuing to serve the best interests of our patients and the public. Designation as an NCI center will make Siteman Cancer Center an even greater resource for the St. Louis community and for cancer care worldwide."
The services at Siteman Cancer Center soon will expand as part of new facilities expected to open in fall 2001 in the Center for Advanced Medicine, being built at the corner of Forest Park and Euclid avenues. The substantial majority of the nearly 5,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients treated annually by University physicians and BJH will receive their outpatient care within the new Siteman Cancer Center facility.
"Cancer patients at the Siteman Cancer Center can be assured of the latest treatments and care including all the clinical and psychological components in a patient-friendly environment," says Ronald G. Evens, M.D., president of Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
The effort to gain federal NCI designation accelerated in 1995, when the School of Medicine obtained an NCI Cancer Center Planning Grant --a first step toward NCI designation.
An additional critical step in the growth of cancer programs at the University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital occurred in 1996, when the board of Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital decided to have the University coordinate Barnard's outstanding indigent cancer care, cancer research and community education programs, thus bringing more resources to bear in the effort to create a broad-based and cohesive cancer program for St. Louis. Subsequently, Barnes-Jewish Hospital joined the University in running these important programs.
Eberlein, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor at the University and Surgeon-in-Chief at BJH, became director of the growing cancer center in November 1999. That same month, St. Louisans Alvin J. and Ruth Siteman committed $35 million to Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the University to support cancer-related efforts, thus expanding and providing a cohesive identity for the medical school and hospital's combined cancer programs.
The Siteman Cancer Center now has eight multidisciplinary research programs and 11 centralized resource facilities, or core facilities, which help spur progress in these cancer programs. It also has efforts aimed at improving cancer prevention, detection and treatment.
Educational and cancer screening efforts at Siteman Cancer Center for breast, skin, colorectal and other cancers reach thousands of St. Louis-area residents. For example, the Barnes-Jewish Hospital mammography van, in association with the Siteman Cancer Center and the University's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, provided more than 7,000 screening mammograms last year throughout the metropolitan area.
The Prevention and Control Program at the Siteman Cancer Center also is actively involved in community outreach. For example, program staff members are providing smoking cessation counseling at various Grace Hill Settlement Center locations and training residents to help colleagues quit smoking.
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