Radiation therapy specialist joins University of Chicago Cancer Center at Silver Cross

Radiation therapy specialist joins University of Chicago Cancer Center at Silver Cross

June 1, 2012

Anne R. McCall, MD, a radiation oncologist specializing in the treatment of breast, gynecologic, lung and prostate cancer and lymphoma, has joined the faculty at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of radiation and cellular oncology and medical director for radiation oncology at Silver Cross Hospital.

She will see patients at the University of Chicago Cancer Center at Silver Cross, which opens June 25, 2012, in New Lenox. Radiation therapy services will be available at the Cancer Center beginning July 9.

The new $21.6 million, 20,000-square-foot outpatient cancer-treatment center on Silver Cross Hospital's replacement campus in New Lenox is a collaboration between Silver Cross and the University of Chicago Medicine. The partnership brings University of Chicago cancer specialists and their access to advanced and investigational therapies to a community hospital setting.

The facility will provide a breadth of expertise and state-of-the-art chemotherapy and radiation therapy techniques. Radiation therapy, as well as access to innovative clinical trials, is vital to the treatment of a range of cancers. The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center maintains more active clinical trials for the treatment of cancer than any other program in Illinois.

McCall brings more than 30 years of medical training and treatment experience to this new role She graduated from Rush Medical College in 1983, followed by her residency in radiation therapy at Loyola University Medical Center, in Maywood, Illinois. She was a faculty physician from 1989 to 1998 at Loyola, a partner at Midwest Radiation Oncology until 2006, and managing partner of Fox Valley Radiation Oncology in the western suburbs of Chicago from 2007 to 2012.

In addition to her clinical work, McCall is interested in translational research -- bringing discoveries from the lab to patient care. She also has a strong interest in cost-benefit analyses, including the economic impact of shorter radiation regimens for patients diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.

"Anne is the perfect person for this role," said Ralph Weichselbaum, MD, the D.K. Ludwig Professor and chair of radiation and cellular oncology at the University of Chicago Medicine. "She combines deep interests in research and clinical innovation with broad experience providing excellent care for patients in the community setting."

McCall was on the board of directors of the Loyola University Physicians Foundation and will soon join the Prairie Land Regional Board of the American Cancer Society. She also served on the medical advisory board for Y-Me of Illinois, as president of the West Cook County Division of the American Cancer Society, and as cancer liaison physician for the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer. She is regularly named one of the "Best Doctors in America" by Best Doctors Inc. and listed in the Castle Connolly best doctor guides.

The University of Chicago Cancer Center at Silver Cross offers the latest technology, including a new linear accelerator that uses image-guided and intensity modulated radiation therapy to provide the safest and most accurate treatments, precisely targeting the tumor from many directions. A key strength of the program is a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach in which radiation, medical and surgical oncologists collaborate to provide highly effective treatment.