Most patients diagnosed with cancer aren’t eager to spend months getting treatment or recovering from surgery. Patients referred for treatment at Ascension Via Christi CyberKnife Center in Wichita don’t have to because CyberKnife can hone in on lethal cancerous or unhealthy tissue with pinpoint precision in just one to five treatments and requires no incisions or sedation.
As a result, keeping up with patients’ and physicians’ demand for this life- and time-saving cancer treatment-of-choice is becoming increasingly difficult, David Bryant, MD, medical director of Radiation Oncology for Ascension Via Christi’s Wichita hospitals.
To meet that growing demand, Ascension Via Christi’s CyberKnife Center—the only one in Kansas—is being expanded.
“Patients battling cancer want to get back to their lives as quickly, painlessly and safely as possible,” says Keisha Humphries, who leads Oncology Services at Ascension Via Christi. “This expansion is an investment in them and the entire Ascension Via Christi Cancer Center team, who are committed to ensuring their access to leading-edge treatment and technology.”
The first phase of the expansion, a software upgrade that will allow treatment planning to be done more quickly, was recently completed. The second yearlong phase is now underway.
The second phase includes the construction of a new vault to house the center’s new CyberKnife M6 robot, which can be used to treat 16 – 20 patients per day vs. the eight or nine being treated with the current system. The ground-breaking took place this fall, with an expected completion in summer 2020.
Salman Hasan, DO, recently completed his residency in Radiation Oncology at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Texas. He joined the Ascension Via Christi Radiation Oncology team in August, which will further expand its overall capacity; radiation oncologist Jon Anders, MD, will continue to see patients in Hutchinson and Winfield.