No more trips to Sudbury: Sault hospital’s new radiation unit up and running

Cancer patients in Sault Ste. Marie will no longer have to travel to Sudbury for radiation treatments.

Radiation therapy services at Sault Area Hospital resumed on Monday, six months after work first began to install new state-of-the-art equipment.

“We recognize that this interruption in services has posed challenges for patients and their families,” says a news release issued today by Sault Area Hospital. “We are especially thankful to them for their cooperation and understanding during this difficult time. The successful installation of new radiation therapy equipment is great news for the community and will ensure that radiation therapy services will continue to be available closer to home.”

The release specifically thanks the Northeast Cancer Centre in Sudbury, which has been treating Sault Ste. Marie and area patients since February, and Mike Moore Construction, whose employees have been volunteering to drive local patients to out-of-town appointments.

Below is the full press release from Sault Area Hospital:

Sault Ste. Marie, ON – Sault Area Hospital (SAH) is pleased to announce that the installation of the new radiation therapy equipment is complete and local radiation therapy services have now resumed as of August 12, 2024.

This new equipment will help our care team to continue to provide excellent care close to home in the years to come. Both SAH and the Shirley and Jim Fielding Northeast Cancer Centre (NECC) in Sudbury are committed to ensuring a seamless transition for patients currently receiving treatment.

The vendor of the new state-of-the-art LINAC machine is Varian Medical Systems. The cost of the unit is $2.25 million which is funded by Cancer Care Ontario. SAH is grateful for generous community donations to Sault Area Hospital Foundation, which supported other project-related costs.

SAH will soon be able to provide Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy to the spine and prostate. This type of radiation delivers extremely precise, very high doses of radiation to cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. A small number of patients who require this treatment will no longer have to travel to the NECC in Sudbury in the future.

Thank you to our care team in the Algoma District Cancer Program for their resilience during this time of change and to our entire construction team for their diligence and hard work. We are also grateful to our care partners at the NECC in Sudbury for the care they provided to our patients during the downtime.

We wish to extend our appreciation to all our partners who supported SAH and our patients during this transition, including the Canadian Cancer Society and all the volunteer drivers who assisted patients with transportation to and within Sudbury. We are also thankful to Mike Moore Construction for their contributions to volunteer driving and to Breast Friends of SSM for providing activity bags for patients.

We recognize that this interruption in services has posed challenges for patients and their families. We are especially thankful to them for their cooperation and understanding during this difficult time. The successful installation of new radiation therapy equipment is great news for the community and will ensure that radiation therapy services will continue to be available closer to home.