Though highly competitive, the rapidly changing field of cancer care in Baton Rouge is steeped in collaboration and competition, with a goal of enhancing patient outcomes. Here’s a primer on what’s happening with each of the city’s major players.
Partnerships & Affiliations
Mary Bird Perkins and OneOncology
After a longtime formal affiliation with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center that began in 2012, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in August 2021 announced its separation from the hospital and a new affiliation with OneOncology, a national network of independent cancer care providers. Since the agreement was signed, Mary Bird has seen a dramatic increase in the number of physicians across its network, says Mary Bird CEO Jonas Fontenot.
Mary Bird Perkins and Baton Rouge General
In January 2022, Mary Bird and Baton Rouge General announced a 10-year partnership. The first areas of shared service were medical oncology and infusion; an infusion center opened at Baton Rouge General’s Bluebonnet campus the same month that the partnership was announced. Radiation oncology was added to the partnership in early 2024.
Mary Bird Perkins and Our Lady of the Lake
Mary Bird retains multiple links with OLOL even after the overarching affiliation ended. The Woman’s Cancer Pavilion at the Woman’s Hospital campus is a joint venture of Woman’s, Mary Bird and OLOL. Additionally, OLOL and Mary Bird jointly participate in a Gamma Knife program at Mary Bird’s Essen Lane campus that serves patients with specific brain conditions, and physicians and oncologists from both entities are “still very much involved in multidisciplinary care and tumor conferences that occur on a weekly basis at and with physicians at Our Lady of the Lake,” Fontenot says.
Mary Bird Perkins and others
In January 2023, Mary Bird entered into a partnership with Opelousas General Health System through which Mary Bird oncologists accept patients in Opelousas and a variety of new resources are offered there. The cancer center also has a longstanding partnership with Terrebonne General Health System in Houma.
Our Lady of the Lake and St. Jude
OLOL Children’s Hospital is home to a St. Jude Affiliate Clinic, one of only eight in the country. The clinic provides all inpatient and outpatient hematology and oncology services on the same floor of the hospital, and its team collaborates with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital researchers and has access to St. Jude’s treatment protocols.
Ochsner and MD Anderson
Ochsner Health announced in June 2023 a partnership with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, creating the Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center. The collaboration made Ochsner “the first and only provider in Louisiana with a fully integrated cancer program based on MD Anderson’s standards and treatment plans,” according to an Ochsner statement. “This is a deep partnership that’s based in clinical science and clinical collaboration,” says Ochsner Baton Rouge CEO Chuck Daigle. “There are opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration on a daily basis between the physicians.” That means partnering on tumor boards and case conferences through which physicians from both entities discuss treatment options for complex cases.
Treatments, Specializations and Research
Mary Bird Perkins
• Mary Bird has been engaged in clinical research for many years, including through an NCI Community Oncology Research Program consortium facilitated by LSU, but it took its research focus to a new level in August 2023 when it enrolled its first patients in two phase one interventional trials, including the first two patients in the world to enroll in a particular lymphoma phase one trial, Fontenot says.
• Mary Bird’s Prevention on the Go program leverages the center’s early detection and outreach resources with three—and soon to be four—mobile medical coaches that travel around the community to provide free cancer screenings. More than 110,000 Louisianans have been screened through the program over the last decade or so.
Baton Rouge General
One highlight of BRG’s approach to cancer care is its multidisciplinary breast care clinic, through which all members of a care team meet a patient together at a single appointment in order to create a comprehensive treatment plan. The patient leaves that day with a total plan and usually can start treatment within a week.
Our Lady of the Lake
More than 40 research studies are currently open at OLOL, including a phase one trial through a partnership with LSU. “That’s an area we’ve identified as an area for growth that we certainly want to continue to develop for our patients,” says Susan Foret, Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute vice president of operations.
Ochsner Health
• In June 2023, Ochsner MD Anderson became the first institution in Louisiana to use CAR T cell therapy, an innovative and personalized immunotherapy, to treat cancer in adults. The therapy procedure, which is used to treat certain blood cancers, was performed on a patient who was announced in September to be in full remission.
• On the research front, Ochsner currently has approximately 160 cancer clinical trials taking place within its hospital system, according to senior public relations specialist Chris Gautreau.
Investments
Mary Bird Perkins
• In December 2023, the first patient was treated with Mary Bird’s new $10 million-plus adaptive radiation therapy program, which combines real-time MRI imaging with radiation therapy delivery and artificial intelligence to reduce the number of treatments while sparing normal tissue from radiation. This Elekta Unity system, first used here for prostate cancer, has since also been used to treat other cancers.
• A new Elekta Infinity radiation treatment system, which reduces the time required for radiotherapy and allows for more aggressive tumor targeting, was put in place in Mary Bird’s Gonzales facility in September 2023. It was the latest in a series of recent investments at the Ascension Parish center.
• Artificial intelligence is being used to create CT scans from patients’ MRI images through the MR-Box software, which Mary Bird became the first clinical site in the world to use in September 2023. The technology reduces the wait time for treatment and eliminates the need for a second appointment.
Baton Rouge General
• The area of oncological surgery is growing here, thanks to an Advanced Robotics Institute that opened in 2021, says Baton Rouge General CEO Edgardo Tenreiro. BRG recently became one of nine robotic programs in the nation to be designated a Total Program Observation center by da Vinci manufacturer Intuitive Surgical, meaning that physicians and administrators from other hospitals around the country will regularly visit BRG to learn how to create their own best-in-class robotic programs. In 2022, the institute became the first program in the country to use Intuitive HUB, a digital platform through which other surgeons can “sit in” virtually during live cases performed by BRG surgeons.
• BRG has also focused new investments on services at its Mid City campus, which has housed a high-risk breast clinic since 2022. The facility added 3D mammography capability in January 2024 at a cost of nearly $500,000.
Our Lady of the Lake
• Surgeons at the OLOL Robotic Surgery Institute performed the first procedure with the institute’s new da Vinci Single Port robot in February, Foret says. The robot allows surgeons to create just one incision for minimal impact and greater precision.
Ochsner Health
• Cancer care has been a concentrated focus of Ochsner’s spending, with $150 million invested in cancer care across its entire system over the past 10 years, Daigle says. That includes new sites and expansions both here in Baton Rouge and in other regions.
• A $10 million expansion of the Ochsner Cancer Center off O’Neal Lane is mostly complete, Daigle says. Ochsner also has added 12 physician members to its cancer team over the past two years, including two radiation oncologists within the last year.
• Ochsner has recently invested locally in multiple advanced simulation devices that aid in formulating radiation therapy treatment plans. A robotic bronchoscopy system was recently installed at the O’Neal Lane campus and hospital leaders are evaluating the possibility of adding a similar system at The Grove campus.
Future Plans and Potential for Growth
Baton Rouge General
A mobile unit based at the Mid City campus will be rolled out this summer, with plans to provide both primary care and cancer screenings throughout north Baton Rouge.
Our Lady of the Lake
In October 2021, as OLOL announced the establishment of its Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute, it also unveiled plans for a $100 million, 80,000-plus-square-foot freestanding cancer center. Though at the time hospital leaders said that a groundbreaking was planned for 2022, the dirt remains undisturbed at the proposed site at the corner of Hennessey Boulevard and Brittany Drive. “The cancer institute is already here,” Foret says. “The building is the question, right?” She says in the short term, the focus is on growing within the footprint of the current facilities, after which the new building will be back on the radar. “As we’re continuing to hire new doctors, with the kind of growth we’re seeing, we’re expecting that we’ll have to have more beds, bench strength, medical oncology, surgical oncology, and the organization is committed to supporting the kind of growth that we need to do the building itself. What will it look like? That remains to be seen.”
Ochsner
Daigle says that as patient volume grows, Ochsner Baton Rouge will continue to recruit new medical staff. “The goal is that where we can provide care closer to home, we’re going to do that.”
