Duke University Breaks Ground on New Comprehensive Cancer Center
Duke University Hospital held a groundbreaking ceremony on November 6, for Duke Medicine’s new comprehensive Cancer Center. The cancer center will address the steep increases seen in new cancer rates, and it will also “facilitate a never-before-seen synergy among one of the most talented oncology faculties in the country.”
Each year Duke physicians and staff treat thousands of cancer patients with many days seeing more than 100 patients receiving chemotherapy treatments at the Morris Cancer Clinic. In addition, close to 700 cancer-related clinical research studies are being conducted at Duke.
The North Carolina Department of Health projects a 14 percent growth in new cancer cases in the state between 2006 and 2011, and a 21 percent growth in the Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area of North Carolina) alone. William J. Fulkerson Jr., M.D., senior vice president for clinical affairs at Duke says that in response to the growth “we are compelled to create a space in which we can optimize the ability of our faculty and staff to fight these diseases.”
The center will provide important learning experiences for residents and fellows and has been designed to improve the patients’ experience of cancer treatment. The new Cancer Center is to create a “healing environment that would benefit not only the patients coming here for treatment, but our employees, too,” said Kevin Sowers, MSN, RN, FAAN, Duke University Hospital CEO.
The facility is scheduled to open in 2012.
