Cancer Care Center
The Cancer Care Center, located on the first and second levels of the building, offers nationally recognized medical expertise and a full range of advancements in cancer treatment approaches. Patients travel from throughout the Midwest and other parts of the country to receive care from Lutheran General’s renowned cancer experts. These specialists are dedicated to the treatment of the most common to the rarest forms of cancer through the latest research and technology, while focused on providing a supportive environment for patients and their families. In addition, the latest diagnostic imaging routinely needed by cancer patients is conveniently located within the same building at the Center for Advanced Imaging.
To learn more about our comprehensive cancer services, please click on the following:
Radiation Oncology
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Phone: 847-723-8030
Location: First floor
Lutheran General’s radiation oncology department in the Cancer Care Center offers state-of-the-art technology and radiation therapy techniques capable of precisely targeting treatment areas while minimizing effects on surrounding normal tissues.
Onsite at the center are skilled radiation oncology physicians who work closely with other specialists, medical oncologists and surgeons to ensure the best treatment plans and support for patients. In addition, they train many other health care professionals through their research initiatives, publications, medical school teaching appointments, and local and national lectures on the latest cancer treatments.
The team also includes nurses with specialized expertise in radiation oncology, radiation therapists who are all American Registry of Radiologic Technologists certified, and medical physicists and dosimetrists who collaborate with radiation oncologists to design the most efficient and effective treatment plan for each patient.
The advancements in cancer treatment offered at the center include:
Tomotherapy
This new, revolutionary way to treat cancer with radiation provides superior targeting of tumors and minimizes side effects for patients. This treatment is particularly useful for head and neck, pancreatic, gynecological, prostate and sarcoma cancers, and pediatric patients. Lutheran General will be the first hospital in the northwest suburbs to offer this technology.
Available in spring 2007
Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
One of the newest computer-assisted radiation treatment breakthroughs for prostate, breast, head, neck and brain cancer, the IMRT technique delivers the highest energy treatment by �wrapping� multiple beams of radiation around a tumor area, while protecting adjacent normal tissues.
Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI)
To reduce the risk of cancer coming back after surgery, focused radiation techniques are offered to target only the area of the breast where a tumor has been surgically removed. Outpatient treatments such as breast brachytherapy (MammoSite) apply a radiation dose directly to the place where the tumor used to be. This procedure, done in collaboration with the radiation oncologist, surgeon and medical oncologist, may reduce radiation treatment time, while still providing the optimal dose.
Low-dose rate (LDR) prostate brachytherapy (seed implants)
This outpatient, nonsurgical procedure for early stage prostate cancer places tiny radioactive seeds into the prostate to destroy cancer in that area, without affecting other parts of the body.
High-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy
With high-dose rate brachytherapy, radiation oncologists can treat tumors that are confined to a small area with intense, localized doses of radiation. This outpatient procedure significantly reduces treatment time for patients. Lutheran General is one of the few centers in the Midwest to offer this type of treatment for prostate cancer.
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)/radiotherapy
In this outpatient, nonsurgical treatment, a very precise, high-powered localized radiation beam is used to treat defined, deep-seated tumors, usually in the brain, for which surgery would be risky. Three-dimensional computer imaging is used to target the tumor and direct the radiation beam from several angles.
Radiopharmaceuticals
Radiation oncologists at the Lutheran General Cancer Care Center use this innovative radioisotope technology to treat bone metastases and lymphoma.
Radiation oncology equipment at the center also includes two linear accelerators that beam electrons or high-energy X-rays through the skin to the targeted site, and a multileaf collimator that precisely focuses the linear accelerator’s beam, avoiding damage to healthy cells.
Apheresis Center
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (hours may vary)
Phone: 847-723-8780 (appointments required)
Location: Second floor
The Apheresis Center, the only facility of its kind in the northwest suburbs, offers individuals a fast, convenient way to donate blood or platelets for cancer or transplant patients. The apheresis process separates blood into different components that are used to support many lifesaving medical treatments. All donations made at the Apheresis Center remain at Lutheran General Hospital.
Family members can come to the center to give direct-to-donor blood for patients who are undergoing cancer treatments at Lutheran General. In addition, the public is welcome to make blood or platelet donations at the center.
The apheresis center also handles stem cell collections for hospital patients, provides apheresis support for research study initiatives and is a collection site for the National Marrow Donor Program.
Clinical Trials
Advocate Lutheran General Hospital is committed to exploring newer, more effective cancer treatments to promote quality of life and improve health. More than 100 clinical trials are conducted annually to investigate and bring innovative, state-of-the-art options to cancer patients in a safe and effective environment. Many of today’s best chemotherapy agents were available to Lutheran General patients years earlier as a result of the hospital’s clinical trials.
Cancer prevention trials also are conducted. These are available to adults who do not have cancer, but are at risk for various reasons. Prevention trials become opportunities to maximize one’s health, and invest in the long-term wellness of future generations.
Among its recent research initiatives, Lutheran General is participating in:
For more information about clinical trials, log onto (ADD clinical research department website).
Specialty Clinics
Multidisciplinary outpatient clinics at the Cancer Care Center allow patients to confer with a series of oncologists, radiation oncologists, plastic surgeons and other specialists in one day. The specialized clinics focus on gynecologic oncology, head and neck tumors, lymphoma, pigmented skin lesions and prostate cancer.
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