DICKSON CITY — About 15 months after breaking ground in earnest, Geisinger’s state-of-the-art cancer center in the borough will welcome its first patients Monday at the new facility providing comprehensive cancer care under one roof.
It’s the product of considerable construction work that saw crews move 187,000 cubic yards of earth, erect 248 tons of steel, install a 2 million pound linear accelerator vault and otherwise complete the project allowing local patients battling cancer to wage that fight close to home. Geisinger and other officials celebrated Thursday that investment and what it means for the future of cancer care in Northeast Pennsylvania.
“Every time we expand at Geisinger, we do so with the knowledge that our community need is growing,” Ron Beer, chief administrative officer of Geisinger’s northeast region, told an audience assembled outside the new cancer center off Martin F. Gibbons Boulevard for Thursday’s ribbon cutting. “When we began planning this project, we recognized that one in five of our friends, our neighbors, our community members were leaving this area for cancer care.”
“Our 10-year projections showed an increase of 7% for cancer-related visits and 9% for chemotherapy services,” he continued. “Because of these trends and the impact it has on our community, we worked to develop a model that not only brought world-class care here, but made it accessible and welcoming. The result of that expansion is the building that you have behind us. We brought the nationally recognized Geisinger cancer program right here to Lackawanna County.”
An aerial view of the Geisinger Cancer Center in Dickson City Thursday, June 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Geisinger Cancer Institute Senior Director of Operations Lisa Keifer made a similar point during a media tour of the new cancer center, where she and other officials highlighted the 61,000-square-foot facility’s comfortable and modern infusion bays, hematology/oncology exam rooms, radiation treatment equipment, tranquil open-air courtyard garden and more.
“There’s a lot of research that cancer patients do better when they’re in their community, when they’re surrounded by their loved ones,” Keifer said. “And really the patients in this area (won’t) need to travel outside of the community anymore to receive the same kind of care that they might in the past have gone to Philadelphia, New York City, areas like that (for). It’s really exciting.”
The Dickson City facility will offer radiation oncology services, a first for Geisinger in Lackawanna County. It also includes an on-site lab and pharmacy where a pharmacy team will mix chemotherapies for infusions there, a setup conducive to same-day treatment. From a safety perspective, the pharmacy is equipped with modular “clean rooms” designed to prohibit bacterial growth during the preparation of pharmaceutical cancer treatments.
Geisinger Cancer Institute Senior Director of Operations Lisa Keifer discusses the linear accelerator used for radiation treatment in cancer patients at the Geisinger Cancer Center Dickson City Thursday, June 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“To have everything in-house for patient care is just phenomenal for the patient, because for a lot of disease states … there’s a lot of weight on the patients and their caregivers,” said Ben Andrick, director of hematology/oncology pharmacy. “The fact that this new cancer center has this state-of-the-art pharmacy so that we can provide all of our pharmaceuticals so that patients can receive them right here in a timely manner is truly a game changer.”
The Dickson City cancer center is an outpatient facility complementing the Frank M. and Dorothea Henry Cancer Center at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. The Luzerne County hospital has an inpatient unit for the treatment of more complex cancers, officials noted in a news release.
They also highlighted elements of the new cancer center specifically designed with patient experience in mind, including the infusion bays looking out upon the serene courtyard garden.
An employee works in the laboratory in the Geisinger Cancer Center Dickson City Thursday, June 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“The center of this building is a garden,” Geisinger Cancer Institute Chair Dr. Rajiv Panikkar said. “And as patients come for the treatment that they need, they’ll have an opportunity to look out and watch the green things of life.”
Those seeking cancer care there will receive it from compassionate and well-trained physicians coming from around the world to “meet them in their time of need,” he continued.
“Hope is a critical word in cancer,” Panikkar said. “And the healing touch of what we do within the building is what defines us.”