 ROCK SPRINGS – Dr. Banu Symington joined the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County staff Feb. 1, working as a hematologist/oncologist.
Symington will work at Sweetwater Regional Cancer Center with radiation oncologist Dr. Zachary Nicholas and the health care team to provide cancer treatment. Hematology is the study of blood disorders such as leukemia and sickle cell anemia. Oncology is the study of cancer.
Symington will work with the healthcare team that now provides cancer treatment at the state-of-the-art facility at the 1180 College Drive location.
Symington worked for MHSC as an internist and hematologist/oncologist from 1995 to 2004. She then worked as a hematologist/oncologist for Mountain States Tumor Institute-St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Now that she’s back, Symington wants to increase community awareness of the care Sweetwater Regional Cancer Center has to offer. Symington wants to work with southwestern Wyoming residents and local doctors to make sure patients no longer need to travel long distances outside of Sweetwater County for treatment.
Symington hopes to help the facility earn accreditation as a center for clinical trials through an organization like SWOG (formerly the Southwest Oncology Group), a group that is supported by the National Cancer Institute and one that conducts clinical trials in adult cancers. Symington is a member of several SWOG committees and has collaborated with Huntsman Cancer Institute physicians since 1996. Sweetwater Cancer Center is an affiliate of Salt Lake City-based Huntsman.
Earlier in her career, Symington worked as a staff scientist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, both in Seattle. She has won numerous research and clinical investigator awards.
While at St. Luke’s, she served as chairwoman of the Medical Executive Committee, the Credentials Committee, and the Oversight Committee.
Symington said that the people, the wide open spaces, and the abundant rocks are what lured her back to Sweetwater County.
