Radiation Oncology center begins treating patients

MOSES LAKE — Sue Arnold said she had first-hand experience with the challenges of radiation treatment for cancer. So she was pleased to cut the ribbon on the new Radiation Oncology Center built by Confluence Health. The first patients will be treated there today.

“Six-year breast cancer survivor,” she said, and her treatment required radiation. “I did the traveling every day to Wenatchee.”

The new facility, located at 905 E. Hill Ave. in Moses Lake, will provide another option for treatment, one that’s close to or in their community, for cancer patients. Dr. Andrew Jones, Confluence's chief executive officer, said that was the reason for building the new facility.

“When you’re in a course of radiation treatment, you have to go very frequently for weeks at a time. And timing is important,” Jones said. “Often it’s daily (treatment). And if you have to travel, that’s just one more hardship for a patient who is already having a difficult time. I think that’s really the main thing, let people get treatment closer to home.”

Oncologist Dr. Michael Graham said the radiation center will be able to treat most types of cancer.

“The vast majority of patients will be able to get their treatment here,” Graham said.

Total project cost is budgeted at $14.8 million, but Brett Witt, Confluence’s project management office program manager, said it will come in under budget.

The facility was a joint effort of the Confluence Health Foundation, the Wenatchee Valley Medical Group and the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation, which raised $3.5 million for the project. The project also received $1.2 million in state grants and could receive a second grant. Jones credited local legislators for their help in obtaining the state funding.

Cancer Foundation director Angel Ledesma said the fundraising effort started in 2019 but hit a roadblock with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was a little discouraging.

“But I want to tell you, because I was born and raised in this community, that I never once doubted that you all would be behind this. Not one time. So I just knew if we kept going we would eventually reach our goal,” she said.

The $3.5 million was raised by July 2021. Abel Noah, vice president and trustee of the Confluence Foundation, said Grant County residents actually exceeded the goal by about $500,000.

Construction took about a year.

“Total project to when we go live is two years, eight months and 20 days,” Witt said.

It involved, Jones said, a complex design process. A physicist was part of the design and construction team, he said, and due to the way radiation works the walls of the treatment room are six feet thick.

Witt said the nature of the treatment requires an analysis of the way the radiation travels; he referred to it as radiation scatter.

“The physicist comes in, and they take into account where the ISO center is on the machine, and then the radiation scatter that’s going to happen,” Witt said.

The design of the exterior walls reflects the areas needing the greatest amount of buffering, he said.

“It has to be very specific. And it has to go through lots of interactions — design, check, design, check, to make sure we’re meeting the state’s needs as well as the radiation scatter there,” Witt said.

Graham said the radiation option will make it easier for patients to get not only the medical treatment they need in one place but all of the services that go along with it. Patients won’t have to travel for those services, he said.

“They can stay in their own bed, be supported by their own family and community. And that’s what it’s all about, not having to displace them so much for something that’s so personal,” Graham said.

Treatment that’s available locally is better for patients, Graham said.

“That was kind of the impetus. The more you can do things close to home and support patients close to home, the better they’ll do,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.