Northland hospital to offer new comprehensive cancer center program
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Healthcare providers at St. Luke’s Health System are excited about a new opportunity for Northland patients battling cancer.
The hospital’s Northland location off Barry Road will soon offer a new comprehensive cancer center program. That location has always offered infusion and oncology services.
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This expansion will add radiation therapy with a linear accelerator, as well as support services like a nutritionist and various therapists.
Dr. Tim Pluard, an oncologist with St. Luke’s Health System, points to the Northland’s growing population. Cancer specialists say treatments have become more effective in the past decade, and keeping patients closer to home is a comfort.
“The treatments are frequent and the time involved in getting the treatments is taking away from their normal life. The easier we can make it, the better their quality of life,” Pluard said.
Directors at Gilda’s Club in Kansas City agree. That nonprofit, named for beloved entertainer Gilda Radner, provides support services for cancer patients and their families.
The group’s executive director, Siobahn McLaughlin-Leslie, cites statistics that one in every two men and one in every three American women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point, and 69 percent of them are now reaching the five-year survival rate.
Gilda’s Club research says transportation is one of the biggest limitations for patients in need of care.
“By putting something in the Northland, that is eliminating that barrier for hundreds, if not, thousands of people,” McLaughlin-Leslie said. “Think of the hundreds of thousands that will have easier access to care. That’s what it’s about.”
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Administrators at Saint Luke’s Health System also pinpoint population growth across the nation, and an increased need for cancer services. The new cancer center expansion is set to open next spring.
Gilda’s Club will celebrate Community is Stronger Than Cancer Day on social media on Friday, which would have been Radner’s 77th birthday. Many of the group’s members celebrated at a gathering on Thursday night.
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