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By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
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PLAINS TWP. – For years residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania have been traveling to big city hospitals to obtain medical treatments unavailable locally. To slow the outflow, Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center expanded its cancer center and recruited two more specialists to boost its surgical and oncology programs.

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Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center expanded its cancer center. Dr. Michel Lacroix, left, specializes in tumor surgeries of the head, spinal cord and spine and is the hospital’s director of neurosurgery. Dr. T.S. Ravikumar, a surgical oncologist, will begin clinical trials for treatment of liver cancer.

FRED ADAMS/FOR THE TIMES LEADER

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The new infusion area where patients receive chemotherapy.

Fred Adams / For The Times Leader

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One of the newcomers, Dr. T.S. Ravikumar will begin a clinical trial Thursday in the treatment of liver cancer.

Ravikumar, who specializes in liver disease and cancer of the liver, is director of the Center for Surgical Innovation and chief quality officer for Surgery and Interventional Procedures.

He joins Dr. Michel Lacroix, the director of neurosurgery for Geisinger Wyoming Valley. Lacroix, a specialist in tumors of the head, spinal cord and spine, is also the director of the Brain and Spine Tumor Institute.

The two doctors will join the multidisciplinary team of health care professionals in the hospital’s Frank M. and Dorothea Henry Cancer Center.

“It is a welcome challenge but not a new one for me,” said Ravikumar. He came to Geisinger from the North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center where he held senior surgical positions.

Lacroix seconded his colleague’s comments. Their shared goal is provide personalized oncology treatment for patients, he said.

Lacroix is one of three doctors in Pennsylvania who is fellowship-trained in neurosurgical oncology. He joined Geisinger from the Centre Hospitalier Affilie Universite Laval, Hopital de l’Enfant Jesus, Quebec, Canada.

As part of developing treatments Lacroix will oversee the development of a tumor bank that will be used for research.

The doctors and patients will have more room to work as a result of the $15 million expansion of the cancer center. It has grown by 34,000 square feet. The extra space added 14 more chemotherapy and infusion chairs and 20 exam rooms. A healing garden with two waterfalls will be located outside the first-floor infusion room for patients and visitors.

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