Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center
St. Louis, Missouri is home to one of the world’s most famous mesothelioma and lung cancer care centers: the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center. The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center is the only Comprehensive Cancer Center in the entire state of Missouri
This means that the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has decided that it maintains the highest standards of excellence in clinical research, patient care, education, cancer prevention, and basic science.
U.S. News & World Report consistently rates Siteman as one of the country’s premier cancer treatment centers. Both of Siteman’s parent institutions, the Washington University School of Medicine and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital consistently rank highly as well. Siteman’s staff and its affiliated institutions contain more than three hundred physicians and research scientists from these institutions. The cancer center treats roughly eight thousand newly diagnosed cancer patients every year, and receives more than one-hundred and sixty-five million dollars in cancer research as well as training grants in the process.
Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center’s dedicated inner circle of specialists includes doctors, nurses, surgeons, and researchers. All disciplines in the cancer center utilize a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. Such an approach is especially beneficial for treating and diagnosing lung cancer as well as mesothelioma.
Siteman contains a fantastic treatment team that specializes in malignant mesothelioma; it is one of a small number of facilities to have an independent, dedicated chest surgery unit.
The cancer center is home to twenty-two lung cancer specialists, who are qualified to treat the most difficult cancers and diagnosis, including roughly four-hundred lung removals every year. The lung cancer specialists at Alvin J. Siteman treat about five-hundred and seventy new lung cancer cases every year. Medical oncologist Douglas Adkins, M.D., and thoracic surgeon Traves Crabtree, M.D. are among the twenty-two lung cancer specialists at the center. Dr. Crabtree specializes in especially difficult, minimally invasive, surgeries for esophageal and lung cancers as well as pleural and mediastinal diseases.
Siteman’s staff usually relies on a combination of radiation and surgery to address local tumors when treating mesothelioma. At the same time, chemotherapy is utilized throughout the entire body, as it can eliminate cancerous cells that may break away from the source. When treating Mesothelioma, the disease’s stage is imperative to the approach. For example, Stage I Mesothelioma (the less advanced type) diagnosed patients might undergo surgery in order to remove fluid in the chest region, followed by chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination of both of these medicines.
Palliative treatments, designed to relieve the pain associated with cancer treatment and symptoms, are crafted to improve the patient’s quality of life. These palliative treatments are combined with other medicines throughout the process of addressing the disease. Siteman’s surgeons also use immunotherapy, also known as biologic therapy, an innovative, experimental treatment in which the patient’s own immune system is boosted to help their own body fight the cancer.
The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center is considered a pioneer in research on all cancer subtypes. Research for mesothelioma, lung cancer, and related ailments is their strength, just as the program is technically placed among the country’s best. The intimate collaboration between the academic and medical communities and Sitemen guarantees the most cutting-edge treatments and diagnosis. The lung cancer doctors engage in clinical cancer trials, such as “Phase I/II, Open-Label, Randomized Study of the Safety, Efficacy and Pharmacokinetics of Erlotinib With or Without PF-02341066 in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Adenocarcinoma of the Lung (A8081002).”