OSF HealthCare is beginning construction for a vault to house a linear accelerator as part of a project to offer radiation oncology services at OSF HealthCare St. Mary Medical Center in Galesburg. It’s expected to be available to patients in November.
OSF is committed to providing the highest quality cancer care for residents in the communities we serve. The linear accelerator will be used for external beam radiation treatments for cancer patients. The high-energy X-rays, or electrons, are focused on a patient’s tumor. The treatments are less invasive, destroying the cancer cells while protecting the surrounding normal tissue.
The combination of the linear accelerator in Galesburg and the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute currently under construction in Peoria on the campus of OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center will broaden oncology services to patients across Illinois. The OSF Cancer Institute will offer proton beam therapy and brachytherapy as well as an infusion center, patient education and support spaces, and a full range of cancer-related services. The first treatments at the OSF Cancer Institute are expected to take place by early 2024.