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A radiation therapist and a dosimetrist (physicist) at CARTI are shown preparing a patient for stereotactic treatment. CARTI has seven locations around Arkansas and recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (CARTI), with locations in five Arkansas cities, is marking its next move.

"We've actually been planning for a long time," said CARTI CEO Jan Burford, a seventh-generation Arkansan. "We've done a lot of demographics analysis with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. By 2015, (we know) we'll have a significantly larger population. Seventy percent of our patients are over 50 and the baby boomers are moving into their peak cancer years. We're concerned that … we wouldn't have the reaction time. What we found, interestingly enough, is that in our area, (there's) a steady increase every year. Past 2010, we have enough capacity, since we're already spread out."

Under the watch of Burford, CARTI's second CEO, the organization has grown from three locations to seven: one each in North Little Rock, Conway, Searcy and Mountain Home, and three in Little Rock.

"The ones we want to watch carefully are Searcy and, perhaps Mountain Home," she said, partly because Searcy is experiencing growth and Mountain Home is a growing retirement community.

"The problem is that once you start projecting out more than five years, the way you treat cancer might change," she said. "But the good thing for us is that we'll have some time to respond. It isn't like some of the hospitals running out of time and that sort of thing."

Burford, who has been CEO for more than a decade, said the biggest difference since she took the job is advancements in technology.

"When CARTI started, it took several different types of accelerators, which are the treatment machines, to treat all the various types of cancer," she said. "Technology changed. You could buy one super-duper treatment machine that could treat all the different types. That's what allowed us to start putting them in the rural communities."

One such piece of technology is shaped-beam radiosurgery that can pinpoint and target various types of tumors; patients can now be treated on an outpatient basis.

Such technology keeps visits down and, according to Burford, that is key.

"When you have cancer, the biggest problem isn't pain, it's fatigue," she said. "People will have to come in five days a week, six or eights weeks at a time. People were driving long distances."

That is one of the reasons why CARTI started to expand. "Our St. Vincent location was so full, we couldn't treat the volume we had," she said.

Since opening up in 1976, CARTI has treated more than 50,000 patients, including children.

"CARTI is the primary radiation therapy provider for pediatric cancer patients," said Alison Melson, CARTI's vice-president for marketing and communications. "We have a CARTI kids program for scholarships. We take trips every year and that's all funded through our foundation. We award those scholarships to the kids that have had cancer, and we do a lot of things for our pediatric patients."

Even though the foundation conducts fundraisers throughout the year, the primary one is the Festival of Trees. Nearly as old as CARTI itself, the event will turn 30 this November.

"It started with a few Christmas trees in the lobby," Melson said. "Ed Rensch, the former CEO, who just passed away this last year, thought they were crazy for wanting to do it, but now, 30 years later, it's one of the most successful fundraising activities that we have."

The event isn't just limited to trees either. Now a full three-day event, it includes music, meals and dancing.

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