Northwestern Center for Interventional Oncology

The broad, long-term objective of this proposal is to expand the new clinical specialty of interventional oncology (IO) by initiating novel education, translational research, and patient care programs. This new specialty will arise via collaboration of interventional radiologists with a multi-disciplinary group of oncologists who treat cancer. This collaborative group will form the Northwestern Center for Interventional Oncology (NCIO). NCIO will offer minimally invasive, image-guided therapies to patients with liver, colorectal, and other cancers. In order to be successful, the NCIO will need to add dedicated personnel that will target growth areas. An interventional oncologist will be needed in order to focus on the clinical and translational aspects of IO. A nurse and clinical fellow will also be added to the team. Once the team has been established, some basic outreach programs in the form of marketing and CME lectures will be performed to ensure that the patient population and referral base is aware of IO and all of the services provided.