Researchers and administrators are excited about the construction that begins this month on the 270,000-square-foot Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center building. McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. in Newport Beach has been named general contractor for the $100 million project, which should be completed by late fall 2004.

The new center is much needed as research space is limited and common gathering and private thinking space nonexistent. “We can’t bring in new people, and we can’t expand existing ideas,” says Georgia Robins Sadler, associate director for the UCSD Cancer Center in charge of community outreach. “We have a wonderful community outreach program whose growth is only limited by lack of space in our offices. Even though you have lots of projects, you still have to have a place to manage them, a place to store your data. And we literally have no space left.”

In addition to the lack of space, employees are spread out in 19 locations. The new center will bring together about 800 physicians, scientists and professional staff in one state-of-the-art building, which will house nearly all the center’s outpatient clinical activities, core research programs and space for community education and outreach. This will be the first time on campus that physicians, patients and researchers will be housed together.

“This is very, very exciting,” says Ira Goodman, associate director of administration. “The most important thing is we’re all coming together under one roof. Beyond that, it will really be the most important cancer presence in San Diego because it will be the largest cancer facility with treatment and research.”

The center will comprise 152,000 assignable square feet — 60,000 square feet of lab space on four floors, 24,000 square feet of office space for cancer prevention and outreach work and 8,000 square feet of administrative office space.

Although the new center will allow for more patient contact, Goodman says Scripps and Sharp still will collectively see the most patients. “We will see more, but I don’t know that we will be the No. 1 patient provider. Certainly not right away.”

UCSD cares for nearly 3,000 new cancer patients a year. Scripps, Sharp and Kaiser have their own cancer treatment centers, seeing between 2,000 and 3,000 new cases of the disease each year.

Cancer Centers Abound

Scripps Hospitals treated 3,650 new patients with cancer in 2001. Scripps has more than 60 inpatient beds and outpatient services to manage the care of these individuals. The geographical locations of Scripps’ five hospitals enable patients with cancer to receive care in their own community: Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest, Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, Scripps Memorial Hospital Chula Vista, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.

Specialized cancer services also are offered. For example, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla has The San Diego Gamma Knife Center for the treatment of brain tumors. A blood and marrow transplant unit is located at Scripps Green Hospital. A specialized Polster Breast Care Center is at the Scripps Memorial La Jolla. Other specialized services include Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy, an advanced treatment technology that aims to improve tumor control and reduce treatment-related complications. Brachytherapy, a state-of-the-art treatment for prostate and breast cancer, and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapies also are available at Green and Scripps Memorial hospitals.

Sharp treated about 3,000 new cancer patients last year and has a 26-bed oncology unit dedicated to inpatients at Sharp Memorial Hospital in Kearny Mesa. Two additional designated cancer programs through the American College of Surgeons are Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa. Sharp Coronado Hospital also offers treatment/surgery options for cancer patients. Additionally, cancer treatment options are available at Sharp Rees-Stealy and Sharp Community medical group offices throughout San Diego and at Sharp Mission Park’s physician offices in North County.

Sharp Grossmont Hospital has the David and Donna Long Center for Cancer Treatment that provides oncology outpatient services under one roof. Sharp Chula Vista also provides oncology services for outpatients in a new medical office building located on the hospital’s campus. Sharp Memorial will open its Outpatient Pavilion in March that will bring all treatment services to one location. Sharp has more than 40 active, open clinical trials throughout the system for cancer patients and has served as the only local site for many Phase I and Phase II trials.

Kaiser Permanente saw about 2,668 new cancer cases last year. Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center/Kaiser Foundation Hospital on Zion Avenue is the primary cancer treatment center, with 395-in-patient beds at its disposal. Also treating cancer patients are Kaiser’s Vista Medical Office building in North County and the Otay Mesa Outpatient Center in South County. Kaiser also offers a Cancer Clinical Trial Access Program that provides patients access to more than 35 clinical trials under way.

UCSD To Bring It All Together

UCSD’s plan to house everyone under the same roof will make tomorrow’s science happen even faster, Sadler says.

“It’s really a unique time to bring the clinical care of patients together with the researchers in the same building and create an environment for the physicians and clinicians and researchers together so that there is this dynamic that can go on over a cup of coffee, in an elevator or in the hallway,” says Charles S. Kaminski, senior architect with the UCSD Facilities Design and Construction Department and project manager for the Cancer Center. “In the past, the researchers are always separate from the people who deliver and take care. This is to create a more dynamic environment that will, hopefully, see a better outcome for the patients.”

Site preparation and road realignment began in September on the 2.4-acre plot, located southeast of the UCSD Thornton Hospital on the university’s east campus.

Working on campus is nothing new to contractor McCarthy, which did its first project in the mid-’80s.

“Over the years we’ve gotten to know people at UCSD,” says Carter Chappell, president of McCarthy’s Southern California division. “We’ve been working with the university on the cancer center for more than a year now. The architecture on the building will be outstanding. It’s more than just a building, it’s an environment. It is functional and pleasing and inviting to the clients and staff.

Along with the center, McCarthy is constructing the Powell-Focht bioengineering building and a school of medicine research building on campus.

Structurally, Kaminski says the center is to be a state-of-the-art building, symbolic of the university’s goals. In addition to the labs, offices, treatment rooms and auditorium space, there are dynamic areas for the patients, faculty and staff. In the plans is the use of natural light and landscaping to create stress-reducing areas. A meadow will run from the cancer center to Perlman Ambulatory Care Center and Thornton Hospital. “That’s intended to be a natural open space that connects to the canyons to the south,” Kaminski says. “There will be a mesa area, an outdoor courtyard where people can sit and relax and mingle.”

Founded in 1979 and renamed in 2001, the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center is one of just 40 centers in the United States to hold a National Cancer Institute designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. As such, it ranks among the top centers in the nation conducting basic and clinical cancer research, providing advanced patient care and serving the community through outreach and education programs.

The whole purpose of an NCI-designated cancer center is to create an environment where multiple disciplines come together to solve the problem of cancer, Sadler says.