ST. LOUIS - Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine have filed a Certificate of Need Letter of Intent with the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee to build a new Siteman Cancer Center in south St. Louis County, serving the I-55 corridor and southern Illinois. The two organizations also have signed a contract to purchase property for the new facility.

Upon completing obligations related to the sale, zoning and Certificate of Need application, and final approval of Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital boards, construction is estimated to begin in early 2011. Opening is anticipated in about two years.

The 16.28-acre site is located immediately south and east of the intersection of I-55 and Butler Hill Road, with access from Butler Hill Road. Currently, more than 4,500 cancer patients in the area surrounding the new center come to Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University for evaluation and treatment. This includes approximately 850 newly diagnosed cancer patients each year.

A 40,000-square-foot, one-story, full-service Siteman Cancer Center outpatient facility is planned for the site, designed to provide the most advanced cancer care for south St. Louis County and southern Illinois patients in a convenient and comfortable ambulatory center closer to their homes. The facility will include a linear accelerator for state-of-the-art radiation therapy and a chemotherapy infusion center. Washington University medical oncologists and radiation oncologists will treat patients at the new facility, and surgical oncologists will provide consults there. Clinical trials will be available to patients for whom standard therapy is not the best option.

Siteman Cancer Center, which encompasses the combined cancer-related programs of Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is the only cancer center within 250 miles of St. Louis that is designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.

The south county facility will provide a fourth location for the convenience of Siteman Cancer Center patients. Current Siteman locations include the Washington University Medical Center campus, Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital and Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital.

Building the $17-million facility will generate nearly 300 construction jobs. Once open, the facility will create approximately 50 new, permanent positions with Barnes-Jewish Hospital or with Washington University’s departments of medicine and radiation oncology.