Within a few years of opening, the Huntsman Cancer Hospital had no free beds available. To handle the increasing number of cancer patients every year, the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and the U broke ground today on an extension to the hospital that will double the number of beds and open updated centers and technology for cancer care.
“There are 4,000 new cancer patients every year,” said David Entwhistle, CEO of Huntsman Cancer Hospital. “Today’s groundbreaking does not come a day too soon.”
The Huntsman Cancer Institute organized the ceremony on Oct. 31 where local leaders drove shovels into a section of dirt. Construction on the project will begin in spring and Beckerle said they expect completion in mid-2011.
The $110 million expansion project has long been a goal of Jon Huntsman Sr., instigator of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The additional 120,000 to 156,000 square feet designed to connect to the northeast lobby entrance of the existing hospital will allow physicians to treat various types of cancer patients more proficiently.
Besides four additional operating rooms and 25 outpatient exam rooms, the expansion includes new centers to bring researchers together for screening and diagnoses and a new MRI machine to monitor tumor surgery.
Entwhistle said the expansion will also include new surgical rooms and an expanded cafeteria.
The Utah State Legislature has approved $80 to 90 million in bonds to the hospital, which would be repaid through revenue, Beckerle said.
The remaining $30 million will be funded through private donations, which the hospital plans to raise over the next year.
Although not for the project, the Lincy Foundation headed by Kirk Kerkorian out of Beverly Hills, Calif. announced a $5 million gift for cancer research. Kerkorian worked with Huntsman on service work in Armenia and he decided to donate the money.
Beckerle said the gift, along with funds the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated, will go to research.
Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr., whose family has also donated millions of dollars to cancer research at the U, said he remembers in 1991 when his father Jon Huntsman Sr. sat the family down to announce his prostate cancer.
“In 1999, my dad stood up and said something that was pretty profound,” Huntsman said. “He said this is the beginning of cancer research on campus, one that will exist right here on the Circle of Hope.”
Since that day, patients have been flown in from all over the country, especially Idaho and Wyoming, to receive treatment for various types of cancer.
Beckerle said the hospital will be able to increase treatment with advanced technologies and help patients receive help for more than cancer, but also their overall health.
Sarah Chambers Collins of Ogden was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago and sat in the audience waiting for a chance to speak with Jon Huntsman Sr. to thank him.
“When I first heard that I had cancer, I was worried about it8212;I still am for that matter,” said Collins, who receives treatment at the hospital. “(But the hospital) is a wonderful facility. They offer yoga, an information library, they just have a whole person approach to cancer.”