Two years ago, OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute opened its doors with a promise: to bring comprehensive, compassionate cancer care closer to home for families across Illinois.
Since then, more than 77,000 patients have walked through those doors – each one facing a diagnosis that changed everything.
As the OSF Cancer Institute enters its third year of providing hope and healing for patients with cancer, the time has come to expand the capability to perform this critically important work. The Ministry has received approval for a certificate of need (CON) with the state of Illinois for construction plans for the fourth floor of the facility. The target for completion is spring 2027.
This new area will occupy over 29,000 square feet and will allow OSF to further expand its integrated cancer care network to include robust medical oncology, surgical oncology, and research components. The fourth floor will also allow expansion of OSF’s theranostics (diagnostics and therapeutics) program, private rooms for infusion create space for more clinical trials to take place at OSF Cancer Institute.
As part of the expansion, Robert McWilliams, MD, an internationally recognized clinician, trialist, and leader in gastrointestinal oncology and skin cancers has joined OSF HealthCare as the Deputy Director of the OSF Cancer Institute.
Dr. McWilliams was on faculty at Mayo Clinic for 20 years, serving in numerous leadership roles. He brings that expertise to OSF where he continues clinical trial and outcomes research in addition to transforming the cancer clinical practice.
Dr. McWilliams played a key role in redesigning the medical oncology care model at Mayo Clinic and will lead the expansion of the medical oncology program at OSF. He has authored more than 180 publications, and has served numerous roles across the globe, including serving on the Pancreas Cancer Task Force and the GI Cancers Steering Committee of the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. McWilliams joins the team operating under the leadership of James McGee, MD, president of the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute that includes Jun Zhang, MD, PhD, who joined OSF last fall as vice president, Oncology Research.
Dr. Zhang is a nationally recognized leader in the research and treatment of lung cancer and has extensive expertise in bench-to-bedside translation and the development of investigator-initiated clinical trials. His work continues to shape emerging ideas at the interface of tumor immunology, microbiome science and precision medicine.
***Courtesy of OSF HealthCare***
