Since then, more than 77,000 patients have walked through those doors – each one facing a diagnosis that changed everything.

As the OSF Cancer Institute enters its third year of providing hope and healing for patients with cancer, the time has come to expand the capability to perform this critically important work. The Ministry has received approval for a certificate of need (CON) with the state of Illinois for construction plans for the fourth floor of the facility. The target for completion is spring 2027.

This new area will occupy over 29,000 square feet and will allow OSF to further expand its integrated cancer care network to include robust medical oncology, surgical oncology, and research components. The fourth floor will also allow expansion of OSF’s theranostics (diagnostics and therapeutics) program, private rooms for infusion create space for more clinical trials to take place at OSF Cancer Institute.

As part of the expansion, Robert McWilliams, MD, an internationally recognized clinician, trialist, and leader in gastrointestinal oncology and skin cancers has joined OSF HealthCare as the Deputy Director of the OSF Cancer Institute.

Dr. McWilliams was on faculty at Mayo Clinic for 20 years, serving in numerous leadership roles. He brings that expertise to OSF where he continues clinical trial and outcomes research in addition to transforming the cancer clinical practice.

Dr. McWilliams played a key role in redesigning the medical oncology care model at Mayo Clinic and will lead the expansion of the medical oncology program at OSF. He has authored more than 180 publications, and has served numerous roles across the globe, including serving on the Pancreas Cancer Task Force and the GI Cancers Steering Committee of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. McWilliams joins the team operating under the leadership of James McGee, MD, president of the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute that includes Jun Zhang, MD, PhD, who joined OSF last fall as vice president, Oncology Research.

Dr. Zhang is a nationally recognized leader in the research and treatment of lung cancer and has extensive expertise in bench-to-bedside translation and the development of investigator-initiated clinical trials. His work continues to shape emerging ideas at the interface of tumor immunology, microbiome science and precision medicine.

Dr. Robert McWilliams Video Interview Clips

Dr. Jun Zhang Video Interview Clips

Dr. James McGee Video Interview Clips

OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute B-Roll

"The most exciting thing that's going on right now, is that some of the most common genetic mutations we know of in pancreatic cancer, are finally having drugs that seem to work against them," says Robert McWilliams, MD, a medical oncologist and the Deputy Director of OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute. "They're in clinical trials right now, but we may see drug approvals as early as this year for these new therapies called KRAS inhibitors. Almost all pancreatic cancer tumors have those mutations. If these drugs are as promising and work as well as we hope, it should make a tremendous difference for pancreatic cancer."

Why this moment matters in pancreatic cancer treatment

Historically, treatment options for pancreatic cancer have advanced slowly compared to other cancers.

"Pancreatic cancer treatment hasn't evolved as quickly as I'd like. We've had more complex chemotherapy regimens that work incrementally better," Dr. McWilliams says. "Trying to put those together into a plan for patients using more neoadjuvant therapies (giving chemotherapy to shrink a tumor before surgery) is something we've done a lot more of in the last few years."

Even with incremental improvements, outcomes have remained challenging – largely because of how pancreatic cancer behaves.

The challenge of a “silent” disease

Pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of gastrointestinal cancer, is often diagnosed late, when treatment options are more limited. According to 2015-2021 data from the National Cancer Institute, only 13.3% of people survived five or more years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Nearly 68,000 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2025, almost 52,000 of them died from the disease.

"One of the things that's most challenging about pancreatic cancer, is that it can be there without causing specific symptoms. Even though a lot of people with advanced pancreatic cancer do have symptoms commonly, it is a very difficult cancer to detect early," Dr. McWilliams says. "Because of that, oftentimes people present with advanced or metastatic disease.”

Therapeutic cancer vaccines are also in development right now. Promising results from post-operative mRNA-based vaccines have suggested an immune response is possible, and patients may have better outcomes. More trials are in progress to evaluate this further.  

Targeting KRAS: A long-standing goal

According to the Lustgarten Foundation, the largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research in the world, KRAS mutations are central to the disease.

KRAS is a gene that helps control when cells grow and divide. Normally, it works like a switch, turning growth on when the body needs it, and off when it doesn’t. But when KRAS mutates, that switch can get stuck in the “on” position, causing cells to grow nonstop and eventually form cancer.

While KRAS mutations are found in about 11% of all cancers, pancreatic cancer depends on it more than almost any other. In fact, more than 90% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas – the most common type of pancreatic cancer – have a KRAS mutation. That’s why researchers see KRAS as one of the most important and promising targets in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

One of the biggest challenges right now is creating drugs that can shut down the KRAS mutations most seen in pancreatic cancer, especially KRAS-G12D, which shows up in nearly half of all cases. Another key goal is developing treatments that can target several KRAS mutations at the same time. The good news: researchers are actively working on it, with more than 60 RAS-focused drugs currently in development.

New drugs moving through late-stage trials

According to Revolution Medicines, Inc., a late-stage clinical oncology company developing targeted therapies for patients with RAS-addicted cancers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a non-transferrable voucher for its drug daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) under the FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher pilot program.

Daraxonrasib is being studied in two global Phase 3 clinical trials: RASolute 302 in patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and RASolve 301 in patients with previously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Symptoms that should not be ignored

Even with promising advances, early detection remains critical.

"One of the things is called painless jaundice. If you turn yellow (jaundice), and you're not having abdominal pain, that is a classical sign for pancreatic cancer," Dr. McWilliams points out. "The most common symptom people notice is weight loss. Most of us are trying to lose weight at any moment in time, but sometimes it's a little too easy and the weight starts dripping off. When that happens, that's something to say 'hey, that's great!' But maybe I should get that checked out."

Reducing cancer risk and improving outcomes

Dr. McWilliams says lifestyle choices can play an important role in reducing cancer risk and improving outcomes after diagnosis:

• Don’t smoke cigarettes
• Don’t vape
• Avoid drinking alcohol
• Maintain a healthy lifestyle, including a healthy weight and regular physical activity

Those diagnosed with cancer tend to do better when they engage in more physical exercise. Regular activity can also help protect against other health concerns, including heart disease, neurological disorders and chronic illness.

Video Interview Clips

Gynecologic carcinosarcomas are rare cancerous tumors, mainly impacting the uterus and ovaries, which take on characteristics of epithelial (develops from the cells that cover the ovaries or line the uterus) cancers, as well as sarcomas (develops in bones, cartilage, muscle, fat, blood vessels and more). It’s estimated roughly two out of every 100,000 women will develop these rare tumors each year.

OSF has been able to treat patients with this very rare cancer before, but now with additional oncology specialists at OSF Cancer Institute, the teams are able to better serve these patients and offer them clinical trials as well. 

Uniqueness of gynecologic carcinosarcoma:

"One of the things that is unique about it is that it could be coming from the uterus, it could be coming from the ovaries, and so we group those together as gynecologic carcinosarcoma as a treatment group," says Michelle Rowland, MD, a gynecologic oncologist with OSF HealthCare. 

Chemotherapy and surgery are normally the treatment options doctors use to treat gynecologic carcinosarcoma. Proton therapy at OSF Cancer Institute offers the medical team an additional option in specific situations.

"We do use radiation sometimes," Dr. Rowland says. "In terms of proton therapy, there could be options for that which would add something unique, depending on where the cancer is occurring at that time. We also have investigational studies and expertise in investigational pharmacy and managing trials. This offers some options for patients."

Dr. Rowland and her team in Peoria have opened one clinical trial for patients with gynecologic carcinosarcoma. Additionally, Dr. Rowland says she is working to launch a study with the University of Alabama-Birmingham, which is currently focused on carcinosarcoma. OSF Cancer Institute specialists have a weekly tumor board meeting to put a multi-disciplinary approach together to help each patient, providing individualized care for them.

"We're putting together a think tank with experts across the country in this field," Dr. Rowland says. "We know some of the latest and greatest in terms of what to try, and we're also working on getting clinical trials open specifically for patients with carcinosarcoma."

The goal of the clinical trial is to find a treatment plan that works better than the current options. By learning more about the molecular basis of these tumors, the clinical trials can hopefully lead to better outcomes. 

Concerning signs and symptoms: 

"Very similar to ovarian and endometrial cancers, we're often worried about patients who have vaginal bleeding when they shouldn't, like post-menopausal women with bleeding," Dr. Rowland says. "Abdominal bloating, nausea and vomiting; symptoms where your bowel or your bladder are changing. These are things we'd recommend you reach out to a physician for a workup. It's most likely going to be something else, but it could be something like this."

Dr. Rowland worked on a carcinosarcoma clinical trial during her fellowship, so she has a real passion for finding the best care plans for patients now. She hopes this care and expertise will attract people not only within the Peoria community but far beyond as well to come to Peoria for treatment.

Patients can contact the Breakthrough Treatment Center and find out what treatment options are available. If interested in participating in a clinical trial, people can call 1-844-OSF-4-HOPE (1-844-673-4467).

Video Interview Clips