Nationally accredited SW IA cancer center gets $1-million grant
September 3rd, 2014 by Ric Hanson
The only nationally accredited cancer treatment center in southwest Iowa has received a $1-million grant for an upgrade to its radiation therapy equipment. The Daily NonPareil reports Methodist Jennie Edmundson’s Cancer Center in Council Bluffs received the award from The Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, and a $1 million challenge grant from an anonymous donor. The funds will help to make the purchase a state-of-the-art linear accelerator.
Shelly Stingley, Program Director of the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program, said the Helmsley grant is intended to enhance health care delivery to residents of rural areas
The combined $2 million will help launch a capital campaign to raise $5 million for the purchase of the accelerator and construction of the special vault needed to house it. The accelerator will deliver radiation with as much speed and accuracy as possible, reducing the duration and number of treatments patients need, according to a press release from Jennie Edmundson.
When a patient undergoes radiation treatment with this technology, the beams are designed to selectively debilitate cancer cells while minimizing damage to nearby healthy cells. Increased precision allows radiation oncologists to treat complex cases involving cancers of the head, neck, lung, breast, abdomen and liver. Even tumors that move – such as those in the lungs – can be precisely targeted thanks to special technology that compensates for motion during a treatment.
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