Advocate Condell Medical Center to provide precise cancer treatment

LIBERTYVILLE – Cancer treatment is evolving at Advocate Condell Medical Center's Radiation Oncology Center, 801 S. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville. An $8 million expansion-and-renovation project now allows for leading-edge equipment and secure surroundings.

A celebratory ribbon-cutting and open house was held in the Center Dec. 11. Radiation Oncology Medical Director, Dr. Dean Conterato, visited with Libertyville Mayor Terry Weppler and other hospital representatives. Several radiation therapists, including Suzanne Nelson, were on-hand to lead tours of the Center's new Varian TruBeam Linear Accelerator, which is capable of treating cancers in all areas of the brain, body and spine.

"We set the patient up in the treatment room, behind a 30,000-pound door, and then deliver the treatments electronically," Nelson explained.

Several gears and computer screens allow doctors to physically move the patient who is lying on the treatment table in the neighboring radiation room.

"We can set patients up for treatment with accuracy down to the millimeter," Nelson said. "They can even bring their own iPod or phone to play calming music through the machine's speaker system."

Nelson said patients "don't feel a thing" during radiation treatment; however, there's a "slight hum" from the machine. Most treatments last anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes, Nelson said.

Designed to treat all forms of cancer, the machine itself costs about $3 million. The room, heavily secured to let no radiation escape, costs about $1 million, and the remaining project expenses include a new CT scanner, said Virginia Frieson, director of the hospital's Cancer Institute.

Weppler thanked the hospital, on behalf of the village, for investing money into the project.

"Condell is the best in the county," Weppler said. "Hopefully they'll become the best in the nation."

Wendy Tumminello, manager of the Cancer Institute, said radiation therapy has been offered Monday through Friday, even with the project's construction, for the past 11 years.

Conterato said the machine will be ready to treat patients in the beginning of January.

"It combines the capabilities of other radiation technologies out there to bring the best," Conterato said. "We can treat very small areas, like the lung and spine, without damaging the spinal cord or over-delivering radiation."

Conterato said this machine "changes how doctors can approach the treatment of cancer."

"It detects body motion during treatment so that we can make corrections," Conterato said. "I think we'll see a trend of doctors moving toward more brief but effective cancer treatments."