St. Anne's execs break ground for new cancer care facility
By Marc Munroe Dion
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Jun 18, 2008 @ 08:32 PM
Last update Jun 18, 2008 @ 11:25 PM

Dartmouth - In about a year, after $21 million is spent to build a 43,820-square-foot building, the best quality cancer care available will become more available for people in the New Bedford area, courtesy of St. Anne's Hospital.

The new facility will replace the existing Oncology Center on Hawthorn Street in North Dartmouth.
Breaking ground for the new cancer care facility Tuesday at Hawthorn Medical Associates, 535 Faunce Corner Road, St. Anne's executives spoke of what the new facility will offer patients.

"A year from now, a 44,000-square-foot building will stand here", said  St. Anne's President Robert E. Guyon Jr. "This will make St. Anne's the largest provider of oncology and radiology services outside of the academic facilities in Boston and Worcester."

The new building will include 20,675 square feet on the first floor for St. Anne's to house two new linear accelerators capable of providing an extensive range of radiation therapy options. This state-of-the-art regional cancer center will replace the radiation capabilities that have been provided since 1994 by Saint Anne's at The Oncology Center on Hawthorn Street in North Dartmouth and, at the same time, dramatically expand both the array of services and offer the very latest medical technology.  

The new Dartmouth center will be operated by St. Anne's radiation therapy staff under the direction of radiation oncologists who are members of the staff of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, with appointments at Harvard Medical School. The center will also offer patients other important services, including access to emerging new therapies through national clinical trials offered by Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare and the National Cancer Institute and comprehensive support, survivorship and interpreter services.  

"All this will be a brand new facility, and we bring to it a team of cooperative people with a great deal of experience," said Dr. Rita Linggood, chief of radiation oncology at St. Anne's.

"The technology here will be tremendous," Linggood added. "We will be able to offer better care, easier care, safer care."
Linggood noted St. Anne's growing reputation in cancer care and said a great deal of that was due, not just to medical staff, but to support staff and volunteers.

"Those are the people who make our program personal and caring," Linggood said.

Susan Oldrid, vice president for development, noted that a capital campaign is in progress and has already brought in $1.7 million, including $1 million from the Robert F. Stoico Foundation and another $500,000 from the Friends of St. Anne's.

Philanthropy will be a key aspect of getting what it takes to do this," Oldrid said.

E-mail Marc Munroe Dion at mdion@heraldnews.com.

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