More cancer care is coming to Greater Cincinnati. Here’s how and why.

Two Cincinnati area hospital systems plan new facilities that could change how local residents get screened, diagnosed and treated for cancer. Here are some reasons for the evolving landscape, and what it means to you.

What’s going on?

St. Elizabeth Healthcare aims to spend at least $120 million to build a special hospital on its Edgewood campus dedicated to cancer. Dr. Doug Flora, the facility's medical director, said, "Our entire approach here will be personalized medicine. We will be studying genetic markers in tumors for the specific mutations, so that we can give you the right drug at the right dose at the right time."

Flora is one of 10 local cancer doctors who joined St. Elizabeth in July 2016 when the hospital acquired the Northern Kentucky office of the private practice OHC. St. Elizabeth officials said then the doctors would be the foundation for a cancer center.

Is this move part of a trend?

The St. Elizabeth facility is the second new cancer-specific facility launched in Greater Cincinnati this year, TriHealth announced in June it will build a $62 million hospital at Bethesda North Hospital in Montgomery as a “one-stop shop” for cancer care. With new bricks-and-mortar investments, TriHealth and St. Elizabeth can expand existing services with more caregivers and new treatments such as immunotherapy and genetically personalized drugs.

Does the region need more cancer care?

And how. In Ohio and Kentucky, cancer is the second-leading cause of death before age 75. America’s Health Rankings, a nonprofit review of hundreds of health measures state by state, found bad news – Ohio ranks 40th in cancer deaths, Indiana 42nd, Kentucky is 50th. Lung cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer death in the three states. Cancer is about to overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death, no matter the age.

Who else offers cancer care here?

The Cincinnati Cancer Center is a partnership of UC Health, home of the Barrett Cancer Center, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In partnership, the two institutions run the proton radiation facility at Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus in Butler County, one of only 26 centers in the nation.

UC Health also is pursuing its decades-long effort to earn National Cancer Institute designation, which could mean at least $40 million a year in new federal research money.

Mercy Health and the Christ Hospital Health Network also offer cancer care.

What fuels the building boom?

Money is pouring into cancer detection and treatment for the simple fact that more patients are seeking care. In Ohio and Kentucky alone, the Affordable Care Act brought into the health care system hundreds of thousands of new patients who need treatment or who might otherwise skip preventive screening.

John Palmer, spokesman for the Ohio Hospital Association, said, “That’s what happens with cancer. If you get early prevention and early diagnosis, you get a treatment plan, and that has created more of that demand. Now the supply issue has come up. … Cancer is one specific piece of health care that Ohio hospitals are making that investment in.”

Because the Cincinnati region extends into Appalachia, where cancer care often is absent, “there’s really a potential to reach out there,” Palmer said.

Where else is the money coming from?

A major stimulus comes from the Obama administration’s “moon-shot initiative” on cancer, which has accelerated research and clinical care. In its “State of Cancer Care in America 2017,” the American Society of Clinical Oncology found the federal push would allow more people into clinical trials for experimental drugs and devices and bring more private enterprise into the fight. Plus, the 21st Century Cures Act, enacted in late 2016, sets up long-term money for the moon-shot initiative. Last month, the nonprofit Stand Up to Cancer launched $16.6 million for early detection of lung and pancreatic cancers.

Any skeptics?

Sure.

“Cancer is on a short list of hospital business lines that are lucrative because they are procedure-intensive, and the payment rates are still very good, even with payors like Medicare,” said Allan Baumgarten, an independent health-market analyst in Minnesota who has studied Ohio for more than a decade.

“Some of this may also be motivated by wanting to appeal more to the specialist practices in town, who might say: 'We’ll bring more of our business to your hospital if we had a designated center, if we had the latest and greatest equipment for therapies … and you let us keep a greater share of revenues that we bring to the hospital.' ”

How will expansions help cancer survivors?

Life with cancer doesn’t end with the last treatment or the word “remission.”

As more cancers are found earlier, more people are living longer after successful treatment. Amy Boehm, senior manager for the American Cancer Society in Ohio, said dedicated cancer hospitals can address the special medical, psychological and social needs of survivors, who often deal with side effects for years after their diagnoses.

"Not only that, once someone is diagnosed with cancer, they have a higher risk of developing cancer again, so it’s even more important than ever for hospitals to step up their game," Boehm said.

Opening dates?

TriHealth officials said the Harold M. and Eugenia S. Thomas Comprehensive Cancer Care Center would open by the end of 2018. Flora at St. Elizabeth estimated that an opening for that cancer facility would be in 2020.

Don’t we have lots of new medical buildings?

There are more to come.

In February, TriHealth said it will build a neuroscience institute at its Good Samaritan Hospital in University Heights. UC Health is erecting its own neuroscience institute in Corryville. The Christ Hospital has just finished its Butler County hospital. Cincinnati Children’s is about to break ground on a $550 million expansion into the Avondale neighborhood.