DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160284

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   54 lines

OBICI HOSPITAL TO DOUBLE CAPACITY FOR CANCER CASES

Obici Hospital, treating far more cancer patients than it had expected, will double its capacity for radiation treatments.

Obici won state approval in May for a $1.6 million project to renovate its Radiation Oncology Department, which treats more than 300 patients a year.

The center reached its original annual patient projections six months after opening in 1993, hospital spokeswoman Susan Stone said. The new center is scheduled for completion in May 1998.

Dr. Mark Sinesi, medical director of the department, attributed the increase in patients to the area's population growth.

``The disease is out there,'' he said, ``We're just able to treat it better.''

Cancer mortality rates in parts of western Tidewater are nearly twice the state average.

According to state health records for 1995, the latest available, cancer killed 132 people for every 100,000 living in Virginia. In Suffolk, the rate was 136 deaths; in neighboring Franklin, 260.

For Chesapeake and Portsmouth, parts of which are served by Obici, the mortality rates are 151 and 169, respectively.

Obici is the lone provider of radiation treatments between Suffolk and Richmond, Sinesi said.

``A few years ago, a person would have to go to Richmond or Baltimore for the kind of treatment we can do here,'' he said.

The expansion will allow the hospital to maintain a steady, but uncrowded, treatment schedule for patients, he said.

The center consists of Sinesi, four assistants, a particle accelerator and sundry equipment that zaps tumors with beams of radiation.

The machine is used to treat a variety of cancers, including prostate, lung, breast and colon cancers, he said.

Typically, patients must visit the center daily over several weeks to receive radiation treatment.

Cancer can also be fought with surgery and chemotherapy, and is commonly handled with a combination of the treatments, he said.

The Obici renovation will include a $600,000, lead-encased treatment room and office space for the department.

A new particle accelerator will cost $1 million, Stone said. The new machine will be able to handle 80 treatments per day, twice what the current machine does.

In 1993, The Obici center gave 3,375 treatments. This year, it is on track to top 5,650.

The number of patients has grown from 180 in 1993, to 277 through August 1997, Stone said. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

Dr. Mark Sinesi says the expansion is necessary to handle an

increasing number of patients.

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