PHOTO BY DONALD A. PROMNITZ Administrators and local officials break ground on the new cancer center at Pella Regional Health Center. The new center is a cooperation between Pella Regional and Knoxville Hospital & Clinics.
More options than ever
Health providers builders fight to expand treatment as cancer rates rise
STORY BY DONALD PROMNITZ Associate Editor
Even as the U. S. cancer incidence rate is declining, Iowa’ s is increasing— faster than any other state— and is second in the nation behind only Kentucky, with factors like obesity, smoking, radon and an aging population being listed as some of the key factors.
However, hospitals in southeast Iowa are working to combat the growing instances of cancer in the state, using education and early testing to cut it off at the pass before it can develop, and advanced treatments and techniques to fight it in patients.
In Marion County, Pella Regional Medical Center and Knoxville Hospital & Clinics have collaborated to construct a new cancer center. Coming in at an estimated cost of $ 14 million, the 7,800-squarefoot facility at Pella Regional will incorporate diagnostic tools and treatment technologies like a TrueBeam linear accelerator to deliver radiation treatments and a combined Biograph Trinion PET / CT unit for diagnosing cancer and determining course of treatment.
According to Pella Regional CEO Bob Kroese, the decision to build the center came from the shared need from residents in Marion County and surrounding areas to have a treatment center close to home, as opposed to the other option of going to receive treatments in Des Moines, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.
BOB KROESE Pella Regional CEO
“ I think the key for it was that we realized that people from a very large geographical area … were often required to drive an hour at
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