An impressive medical complex is growing in southeast Great Falls.

Completed in 2005 were the Great Falls Clinic's Specialty Center, 3000 15th Ave. S., and Benefis Healthcare's Sletten Cancer Institute, 1117 29th St. S.

Each project carried a $20 million price tag.

Both facilities offer extensive and competing cancer care facilities, although the Clinic building houses other specialties as well.

"It's wonderful to have access to state-of-the-art equipment and such outstanding practitioners in our area," says Wendy McKamey, the mother of a former cancer patient and an active Great Falls community volunteer.

The Sletten Cancer Institute recently received a new cancer-fighting weapon: a high-tech machine called a CyberKnife.

ADVERTISEMENT

The $4 million radiosurgery system is the latest in accuracy and expedience in the field according to Joe LoDuca, Manager of Radiation Oncology at Sletten Cancer Institute.

"Basically, this technology offers patients who are considered inoperable a treatment option," LoDuca says.

LoDuca said CyberKnife allows for more precise, higher doses of radiation to be delivered because it's accurate to less than a millimeter.

The Sletten Cancer Institute and McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls have teamed up with the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

For northcentral Montana cancer patients, the collaboration means access to specialized care for patients -- even those in remote locations suffering from the rarest of cancers.

For scientists, the affiliation means expansion of clinical studies into causes, treatments and possible cures for the devastating disease.

For the community, the arrangement has economic growth implications and a potential influx of high-paying high-tech jobs.

"This offers our patients the convenience of care close to home and the security of knowing they're getting the best of care, no matter how rare their diagnosis," says Dr. Grant Harrer, Oncologist and Medical Director of the Sletten Institute.

The Clinic Cancer Care, which occupies the northernmost section of the Specialty Center, features the Clinic's first radiation oncology department.

It offers the first high-dose rate brachytherapy and MammoSite in the state of Montana, according to Dr. Jeffrey Stephenson, Radiation Oncologist.

In fact, the 108,000-square-foot building has $8.5 million worth of medical imaging and cancer treatment equipment.

"We do this for the competition, sure," Stephenson says, "but it's really for the patient."

MammoSite treatment can reduce radiation for breast cancer from 6-weeks to five days.

Both cancer centers offer Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy that allows the computer to form the radiation to the shape of a tumor.

With high-dose rate brachytherapy, physicians can deliver enough radiation to reduce treatment time for lung, prostate and other cancers.

But at the Clinic, it's not all about cancer. The Specialty Center houses specialties ranging from audiology to urology.