Inside Duke Medicine

DUHS files papers to build cancer center

Duke University Health System has filed a Certificate of Need (CON) with the state of North Carolina for construction of a proposed 265,000-square-foot cancer center that would expand and consolidate Duke’s comprehensive outpatient cancer services and research facilities.

The project also calls for renovating 14,400 additional square feet of the existing Morris Cancer Clinic. The requested expansion and renovation would cost an estimated $235 million.

The proposed expansion would allow Duke to grow its teaching, training and research programs in order to remain competitive as a national educational and research leader. The project seeks to create a comprehensive patient-and family-centered facility to meet the projected statewide demand for oncology services. The goal is to improve and streamline access by putting adult cancer services, currently separated in various locations throughout the medical center, under one roof.

“This expansion would allow Duke to keep pace with the growing demand, locally and statewide, for the kind of sophisticated, leading edge cancer services that we are committed to providing to the people of North Carolina,” said Victor J. Dzau, M.D., chancellor for health affairs and president and chief executive officer of Duke University Health System. “We will continue our planning related to this project in hopes of receiving an approval from the CON division. Duke is committed to continuing to be a national and international leader in cancer-related patient services and clinical and basic research.”

New cancer cases are projected to increase by 21 percent in the greater Triangle over the next five years and 13 percent in North Carolina as a whole. Today, more than 65 percent of adult cancer patients and 78 percent of childhood cancer patients survive five years beyond diagnosis, creating a vast and growing number of cancer survivors, who require follow-up and supportive care.

“Clinicians and researchers at Duke and other institutions have made so many advancements and are seeing so many more patients reach survivorship, and if you combine the growing number of survivors with the growing number of newly diagnosed people, we can expect to see a real explosion in demand for our services,” said Kevin Sowers, RN, MSN, chief operating officer and interim chief executive officer of Duke University Hospital. “This expansion really reflects our attempt to meet that need.”

If approved, the new facility would house clinical programs in all areas of ambulatory cancer care, including clinic space, infusion therapy, radiation oncology, imaging, lab services, pharmacy services, genetic counseling and patient support services, including educational, nutritional and social work resources.

The new building would be located next to the existing Morris Cancer Clinic, which is part of the Duke South clinic building. Construction would occur at the same time as construction on the expansion of Duke University Hospital, but the projects would be phased so that patient care and research can continue without interruption, Sowers said.

More than 75 percent of cancer patients seen at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2007 were residents of North Carolina. Duke currently serves patients from all but one of North Carolina’s counties. Its clinical services are consistently ranked among the nation’s best.

A CON request is required by the state for any proposed hospital facilities expansion. If approved, it is hoped construction would begin in July 2009. The project is estimated to take three years to complete.

“We are aware that this project is conditional upon approval by the state,” Sowers said. “We hope that the reviewers of the request will recognize that consolidating and expanding our cancer services is necessary for us to be able to meet the cancer care need that is projected for North Carolina. This project is of great importance to people who will be diagnosed with cancer in the future, and is also important to the field of oncology as Duke researchers continue to make basic and clinical discoveries that are changing the lives of people with cancer.”