UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Nassif Radiation Center is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this week. The Nassif Radiation Center revolutionized cancer care in Cedar Rapids when the facility opened its doors within the Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa (PCI) Medical Pavilion on October 5, 2015.
“This was a huge milestone for cancer care in our community,” said Andrea Watkinson, executive director of Cancer Services for UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Hospital. “It brought world-class radiation technology and treatment into the same building as our medical oncology and support services teams, giving patients access to their entire cancer care team and all the services they need under one roof.”
Already located inside PCI when the Nassif Radiation Center opened was the Nassif Community Cancer Center – which offers the area’s largest array of cancer support services including exercise, social work, nutrition counseling and much more – as well as PCI Hematology Oncology, which provides patients with chemotherapy treatments.
The radiation center was the final piece of the full cancer care continuum, and since opening, it has grown in size and capability.
“New technologies have made treatments more precise, faster and gentler on patients, and advancements like image-guided therapy have improved outcomes while reducing side effects,” said Watkinson. “The center has stayed at the forefront, ensuring our patients benefit from the latest innovations.”
By the numbers:
The experienced team at St. Luke’s Nassif Radiation Center has a combined 220 years of experience in radiation therapy, and over the past decade has completed approximately 65,123 radiation treatments for 4,146 patients.
