TIn July of 2020, Mercy Hospital St. Louis broke ground on the 1700 square-foot addition to the David C. Pratt Cancer Center, the future home of the MEVION S250i Proton Therapy System® with HYPERSCAN® Pencil Beam Scanning technology. Mercy Hospital’s David C. Pratt Cancer Center is a nationally accredited center, which provides outpatient treatment, radiation oncology and infusion services for the cancer patients throughout the Mercy hospital network.

The David C. Pratt Cancer Institute offers informed, trusted, and technologically advanced cancer care close to home for St. Louis and St. Louis-adjacent residents. They have the highest volume of robotic surgeons in the state of Missouri, and they even rank 5% on a national level.  

"Like the Sisters of Mercy before us, we're committed to providing the latest, most effective care for all those we serve,"  says Stephen Mackin, Senior Vice President of Mercy Hospital and Executive Vice President, Mercy Health & President, St. Louis Community.

"While this technology will be located at the David C. Pratt Cancer Center in St. Louis, it will be available to patients throughout our region. Patients will be evaluated for treatment at their nearest Mercy oncology facility, eliminating unnecessary travel."

"We look forward to sharing our progress as we prepare to provide proton treatment in 2022," he concludes. 

The proton system at Mercy Hospital will be incorporated directly into the existing radiation oncology department. Embedding proton systems is a more efficient approach enabled by the highly compact systems that Mevion provides. This design helps the hospital share existing resources and maintains a fully integrated continuum of care for patients. Construction of the center will last 18 months with a center opening in summer of 2022.

You can watch the progress here: