Despite construction on Route 13, a few yards away the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Southern Illinois Healthcare Cancer Center took place Friday.

The groundbreaking was at the construction site of the soon-to-be $25.5 million, 42,000-square-foot building, which will bring all cancer care needs under one roof and enable less traveling for patients and family and friends.

“We are starting to win the fight against cancer,” SIH Cancer Center Medical Director Deepak Malhotra said.

Dr. Malhotra said one step in fighting cancer is to get all of the specialists under one roof, and that is what this center is doing.

The Southern Illinois Healthcare website said the center will offer radiation, medical and surgical oncology, infusion therapy, cancer rehabilitation, clinical trials, specialty clinics and support groups.

Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board in Chicago approved the plan for the center in May 2013. The center will be the first freestanding cancer center in the region, which may come as a surprise because the southern counties of Illinois have the highest rate of cancer incidents in the state, according to the SIH website.

“Of the 16 counties in our primary and secondary service areas, Franklin, Johnson and Alexander fall in the top 10 for cancer incidence rates in the state,” SIH Cancer Institute Administrative Director Jennifer Badiu said on their website. “With the exception of Jackson County, the majority of counties in deep southern Illinois have cancer rates that are higher than the state average.”

The keynote speaker at the ceremony was cancer survivor Leah “Lia Mira” Lerner of Carbondale. Lerner had the crowd in tears as she spoke about the troubles cancer has caused for her and her family. Lerner told the audience that when she found out she had cancer, she wanted to spend all of her time with her family, but some of her doctors were in St. Louis, so it was a challenge.

Lerner said her family used to travel to St. Louis to have fun, but it does not have that fun feeling right now. She said someday she and her family will go to St. Louis and celebrate.

Carterville Mayor Brad Robinson said this center will also help Carterville economically.

“Fifty to 60 people will be employed at the cancer center,” Robinson told KFVS 12. “Twenty-five of those will be new employees. That benefits Carterville and all of southern Illinois greatly.”

The Southern Illinois Healthcare Cancer Center has an expected completion date of March 31, 2016, according to the Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

Jordan VanDeever can be reached at 

[email protected] 

or 536-3311 ext. 256