The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at
Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Barnes-Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End, St. Louis, Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicin ...
and
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine shares a ca ...
is a cancer treatment, research and education institution with six locations in the
St. Louis
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
area. Siteman is the only cancer center in
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
and within 240 miles of St. Louis to be designated a
Comprehensive Cancer Center by the
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
(NCI). Siteman is also the only area member of the
National Comprehensive Cancer Network
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is an alliance of 33 cancer centers in the United States, most of which are designated by the National Cancer Institute (one of the U.S. National Institutes of Health) as comprehensive cancer cent ...
, a nonprofit alliance of 32 cancer centers dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of cancer care.
Siteman treats more than 75,000 individual patients, including 12,000 newly diagnosed patients, every year.
Locations
Siteman's main facility is at
Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis’
Central West End
The Central West End is a Neighborhoods of St. Louis, Missouri, neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, stretching from Midtown St. Louis, Midtown's western edge to Union Boulevard and bordering on Forest Park (St. Louis), Forest Park with its array ...
neighborhood. In 2021, work began on a new main facility on the medical campus that is scheduled for completion in summer 2024. Five other St. Louis-area sites offer specialized cancer care in suburban locations:
History and leadership
In 1999, Alvin J. and Ruth Siteman committed $35 million to the development of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The commitment was the largest gift ever received by Barnes-Jewish and Washington University in support of cancer research, patient care and services, education and community outreach.
Timothy Eberlein has been director of the center since its inception. John DiPersio is deputy director.
In 2001, the NCI designated Siteman as a Cancer Center, which signaled that the institution had demonstrated significant scope and quality in its cancer research programs. The designation came with $850,000 per year in federal research grants. The NCI named Siteman a Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2005, recognizing its broad-based research, outreach and education activities, and awarded the center a five-year, $21 million support grant. The NCI renewed the designation in 2010 and awarded another five-year grant, totaling $23 million. The grants fund programs and specialized services that promote multidisciplinary research, as well as shared scientific resources and seed awards that enable investigators to develop and pursue new research opportunities.
Alvin J. Siteman announced in 2010 that he would donate $1 million annually to an endowment fund at the center to advance cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment programs that might not receive federal funding.
Patient care and services
More than 350 Washington University research scientists and physicians provide inpatient and outpatient care at Siteman. The center also offers patient and family support services, including discussion and education groups.
In 2018, Siteman announced it would build a second
proton therapy
In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam ...
unit at its S. Lee Kling Proton Therapy Center. The first opened in late 2013.
Research
Scientists and physicians affiliated with Siteman hold more than $145 million in cancer research and related training grants. The results of basic laboratory research are rapidly incorporated into treatment advances. This process is enhanced by patient access to more than 500 therapeutic clinical studies, including many collaborative efforts with other leading cancer centers throughout the country.
In 2013, three scientists affiliated with Siteman, Washington University School of Medicine and the
McDonnell Genome Institute were included on the
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...
list of “Hottest Scientific Researchers of 2012”:
Richard K. Wilson,
Elaine Mardis, and Li Ding. The list recognized the 21 most-cited researchers of 2012. Robert Fulton, a fourth scientist from Washington University School of Medicine and the
McDonnell Genome Institute, also made the list.
Research advances
Researchers affiliated with Siteman and/or Washington University School of Medicine have pioneered important advances in cancer research, prevention, education and treatment. Highlights and ongoing studies include these projects:
2018 — Personalized brain cancer vaccines
* In a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a
glioblastoma
Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is the most aggressive and most common type of cancer that originates in the brain, and has a very poor prognosis for survival. Initial signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nons ...
vaccine, some patients "lived significantly longer" - up to seven years longer - than most people who are diagnosed with the brain cancer. Researchers developed personalized vaccines for each patient, removing as much of the brain tumor as possible, then combining pieces of the tumor with cells from the patient's immune system. This "trains" the immune cells to attack tumor cells.
2017 — CAR-T cell therapy and using Zika virus to fight brain cancer
* In a clinical trial at Siteman, at least 16 of 20 people who received a new treatment called CAR-T cell therapy saw their cancers disappear after treatment. The patients had previously failed standard therapies. The therapy,
Axicabtagene ciloleucel, received FDA approval on Oct. 18, 2017.
* While Zika virus causes devastating damage to the brains of developing fetuses, it one day may be an effective treatment for glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer. Joint research from Washington University School of Medicine and
UC San Diego School of Medicine
The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It wa ...
shows that the virus kills brain cancer stem cells, the kind of cells most resistant to standard treatments.
2016 — Chemotherapy for brain tumors
* Neurosurgeons using lasers to treat brain cancer discover that the technique breaks down the blood-brain barrier for about four weeks, allowing them to use chemotherapy to treat the tumor. A clinical trial is still ongoing, but Eric C. Leuthardt, M.D., considers the initial results promising.
2015 — Melanoma vaccine and urine test for kidney cancer
* In a proof of concept study, a research team led by Beatriz Carreno, Ph.D., shows that personalized medicine can "wake up" the immune systems of melanoma patients. Further study needs to be done to see if the customized vaccines can prevent recurrence in patients with advanced melanoma.
* A urine-based screening test is found to be more than 95 percent accurate in identifying early-stage kidney cancer, according to a study led by Evan Kharasch.
2014 — Breast cancer vaccine and cancer goggles
* A breast cancer vaccine developed by William Gillanders is shown to activate the immune system to fight tumor cells and slow down cancer progression. The vaccine, which targets
mammaglobin-A, a protein expressed in breast tumors, involved very few side effects.
* High-tech goggles developed by
Samuel Achilefu help surgeons see cancer cells in real time. The technology, which includes a digital display, infrared light and use of an intravenous dye, could negate the need for follow-up surgeries due to undetected cancer cells.
2013 — Endometrial cancer and leukemia
* In separate studies, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and the
McDonnell Genome Institute help identify major genetic mutations that promote
endometrial cancer
Endometrial cancer is a cancer that arises from the endometrium (the epithelium, lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells (biology), cells that can invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first s ...
and
acute myeloid leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with haematopoiesis, normal blood cell production. Sympt ...
. The research, part of
The Cancer Genome Atlas
The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a project to catalogue the genomic alterations responsible for cancer using genome sequencing and bioinformatics. The overarching goal was to apply high-throughput genome analysis techniques to improve the abili ...
project, provides new information that could change treatments for patients and aid drug development.
2012 — Leukemia, breast cancer research and cancer prevention
* Siteman leukemia doctor Lukas Wartman who was diagnosed with the disease himself, goes into remission for an unprecedented third time after
Timothy Ley and his colleagues at the
McDonnell Genome Institute sequenced Wartman's cancerous and normal genes. Researchers also analyzed his
RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...
. By doing so, his treatment team, which includes John DiPersio deputy director of Siteman, discovered that a normal gene might be contributing to the growth of Wartman's cancer by producing mass amounts of a certain protein. They found that a drug used to treat a type of kidney cancer was able to inhibit the gene.
* Scientists including Matthew Ellis use
whole genome sequencing
Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing or just genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's ...
to compare differences between the
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
of breast cancer tumors and healthy cells in 46 women. While revealing the complexity of the disease, the analysis suggests routes to personalized medicine that may have a greater probability of healing patients.
* Building on his research for the
Nurses Health Study and
Growing Up Today Study,
Graham Colditz continues to examine links between cancer and alcohol use, diet, exercise and other factors and what individuals and communities can do to reduce disease risk. In a 2012 paper, Colditz argues that half of all cancer cases can be prevented, thereby saving more than 280,000 people in 2011, and that individuals, medical and health experts, government officials and others must start taking already known steps to reduce cancer's impact.
2011 — Blood-related cancers
* Siteman completes its 5,000th
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood, in order to replicate inside a patient and produce ...
, a common therapy for patients with blood-related cancers such as
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
,
lymphoma
Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). The name typically refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlarged lymph node ...
, and
multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...
or another blood-related cancer.
2010 — Pediatric cancers
* Washington University School of Medicine and
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital announce their joint Pediatric Cancer Genome Project to identify the genetic changes that give rise to some of the world's deadliest childhood cancers. The team plans to decode the genomes of more than 600 childhood cancer patients who have contributed tumor samples.
2008 — Genetic sequencing
* For the first time, scientists decode all the genes of a cancer patient and find a suite of mutations that might have caused the disease or aided its progression.
Timothy Ley,
Elaine Mardis,
Richard K. Wilson, and their colleagues at
McDonnell Genome Institute say the finding could lead to new therapies and could help doctors make better choices among existing treatments, based on a more detailed genetic picture of each patient's cancer. Though the research involved
acute myelogenous leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may includ ...
(AML), the same techniques can also be used to study other cancers.
2007 — Nanotechnology and radiation therapy
* Gregory Lanza, Samuel Wickline, and researchers in their labs announce the development of
nanoparticles
A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is a particle of matter 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 100 nm in only two directions. At ...
, significantly smaller than the width of a human hair, aimed at attacking cancer by locating and "latching on" to tumors. Used in conjunction with
magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and ...
, the nanoparticles could help physicians monitor cancerous tissue and deliver medicine directly to the tumor, not to the rest of the body.
* Researchers led by Daniel Low and Parag Parikh develop a machine called the 4D Phantom that follows a patient's complex breathing pattern to deliver radiation therapy to tumors that move, such as those in the lung.
2006 — Photoacoustic imaging
* Lihong Wang announces his work on
photoacoustic imaging, a new technique that uses light and sound to create detailed, color pictures of tumors and organs. The noninvasive imaging technique, which can be performed without the dangers of radiation exposure associated with
X-ray
An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
and
CT scans
A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or ...
, also may help doctors detect cancer earlier than ever before, its developers say.
2003 — Breast cancer
* Thalachallour Mohanakumar and other researchers at Siteman develop and test on mice a prototype vaccine that causes cancerous tumors to stop growing, then to shrink. The vaccine, which is being developed to fight breast cancer in humans, helps the immune system target a protein found in 80 percent of breast tumors.
2001 — Imaging and the immune system's role in controlling cancer
* Research led by Joanne Mortimer shows that
positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, r ...
(PET) scans can often identify within two weeks which women with advanced breast cancer are likely to respond to
hormone therapy
Hormone therapy or hormonal therapy is the use of hormones in medical treatment. Treatment with hormone antagonists may also be referred to as hormonal therapy or antihormone therapy. The most general classes of hormone therapy are hormonal therap ...
, a gentler alternative to chemotherapy that is usually just as effective.
*
Robert D. Schreiber and colleagues publish the first evidence that the immune system plays a role in controlling cancer, a process called immunosurveillance. In 2007, they find in mice that some cancers are kept in a state of "equilibrium," which leads them to suggest that one day
immunotherapy
Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as ''activation immunotherapies,'' while immunotherap ...
may convert cancer into a chronic but controllable disease.
* Molecular oncologist Howard McLeod announces research on a genetic mutation that affects how well patients will respond to chemotherapy. The findings may make possible a blood test that would determine what dose, or even which drugs, would be most effective for each patient.
1998 — Biopsies
* Ralph G. Dacey Jr. performs the world's first magnetic
stereotactic surgery
Stereotactic surgery is a minimally invasive form of surgery, surgical intervention that makes use of a three-dimensional coordinates, coordinate system to locate small targets inside the body and to perform on them some action such as ablation, ...
to biopsy a human brain tumor using an indirect route to the tumor. The route is designed to avoid regions that would normally be entered when a surgeon manually inserts a surgical tool straight at a site. The investigational computerized system allows surgeons to carefully manipulate surgical tools inside the brain through the use of a catheter driven by precisely controlled magnetic fields.
1994 — Genetic screening test for thyroid cancer
* Led in part by
Helen Donis-Keller, researchers for the first time develop genetic screening tests that detect a rare, lethal form of
thyroid cancer
Thyroid cancer is cancer that develops from the tissues of the thyroid gland. It is a disease in which cells grow abnormally and have the potential to spread to other parts of the body. Symptoms can include swelling or a lump in the neck, ...
in the preclinical state, permitting early treatment in children predisposed to the disease. It was the first surgical prevention of cancer based on genetic test results.
1979 — Bone marrow transplants
* As part of a clinical trial,
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
patients at Washington University in St. Louis and four other medical centers receive transplants of their healthy bone marrow cells to determine how effective the procedure is in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The new technique would later be called autologous
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood, in order to replicate inside a patient and produce ...
.
Mid-1970s — Imaging
*
Michel Ter-Pogossian leads the research that will turn the PET scanner from an intriguing concept to a medical imaging technique used by hospitals and laboratories everywhere to scan the working brain.
1954 — Growth factors and cancer
*
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini ( , ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian neurobiologist. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor ( ...
and
Stanley Cohen isolate for the first time
nerve growth factor
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophic factor and neuropeptide primarily involved in the regulation of growth, maintenance, proliferation, and survival of certain target neurons. It is perhaps the prototypical growth factor, in that it was ...
, a potent substance that promotes nerve cell growth. The discovery later leads to insights into cancer and birth defects, and in 1986 the two are awarded a
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
for their work.
1946 — Radiocarbon in cancer research
* For the first time, the
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...
releases
carbon-14
Carbon-14, C-14, C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic matter is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...
isotopes to a civilian entity, Siteman's predecessor institutions, Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital (founded in 1905) and the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (founded in 1923), where they are used in cancer studies.
1941 — Cyclotron
* At the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, construction begins on the first
cyclotron
A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Januar ...
devoted to medical and biological research.
1933 — Lung cancer surgery and the disease's link to smoking
*
Evarts Ambrose Graham becomes the first surgeon to cure a human case of lung cancer by removing an entire lung during a procedure known as
pneumonectomy. In 1950, he and
Ernst Wynder publish the results of the first large-scale research on smoking, linking prolonged cigarette use to lung cancer.
Cancer prevention and control
Siteman and Washington University School of Medicine are actively engaged in many projects to prevent cancer in the St. Louis region and across the United States. These efforts include:
* The
Your Disease Risk website, an interactive tool that helps people estimate their risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and stroke, and suggests preventative measures that help lower the likelihood of developing each disease.
* Zuum, a free
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...
for
iPad
The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...
that estimates a person's risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases, and offers customized tips for prevention and boosting one's overall health.
* "Together - Every Woman's Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer," a free e-book for iPads that provides practical, science-based advice for lowering breast cancer risk at nearly every stage of life.
* Research examining cancer disparities, cancer communications and tobacco use.
Education and community outreach
In addition to treatment and research programs, Siteman is involved with community outreach, education and screening. Efforts include:
* The Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD), which develops cancer prevention and awareness messages, reports research findings to the community, hosts continuing medical education events and engages in other activities.
* Placing information about breast cancer and mammograms in Laundromats, where a study has shown it's more likely to be seen than in other community settings by women who lack access to adequate health care.
* A mobile mammography van that offers screenings by appointment in St. Louis and surrounding communities.
Siteman Cancer Network
In 2017, Siteman Cancer Center launched the Siteman Cancer Network, an affiliation with regional medical centers that is aimed at improving the health of individuals and communities through cancer research, treatment and prevention. Network members are
Boone Hospital Center's Stewart Cancer Center in
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...
, Phelps Health's Delbert Day Cancer Institute in
Rolla, Missouri,
Alton Memorial Hospital in
Alton, Illinois
Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend (Illinois), Riv ...
and Southern Illinois Healthcare in
Carbondale, Illinois
Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 25,083, making it the most po ...
.
References
External links
Alvin J. Siteman Cancer CenterWashington University School of MedicineBarnes-Jewish HospitalYour Disease Risk
{{WUSTL
Cancer hospitals
NCI-designated cancer centers
Academic health science centres
Medical research institutes in the United States
Cancer organizations based in the United States
Teaching hospitals in Missouri
Hospitals in St. Louis
Central West End, St. Louis
Hospitals established in 1999
1999 establishments in Missouri
Buildings and structures in St. Louis
Research institutes in Missouri