EDINBURG — UT Health RGV broke ground Friday on the construction of its new Cancer and Surgery Center that UTRGV President Guy Bailey said will help fill healthcare gaps in the region.
The new center is the development of UTRGV’s McAllen Academic Medical Campus, which will be located off Pecan Boulevard between Jackson and McColl roads in the 495 Commerce Center development. Friday’s ceremony kicked off phase 1 of the project.
UTRGV, city of McAllen and state officials attended the event to celebrate the partnership between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The new center is expected to be a three-story facility that will allow the UTRGV School of Medicine to expand its cancer research, according to UTRGV. The facility will also allow access to underserved specialties as well as clinical services in medical, radiation and surgical oncology.
“This is about a 140,000-square-foot facility and we’ll have really a full-functioning cancer treatment area … we’ll be able to do laboratory, pathology, diagnostic imaging with MRIs, CAT scans,” said Dr. Michael B. Hocker, dean of the UTRGV School of Medicine and senior vice president for UT Health RGV. “We’ll also be able to treat patients so we’ll be able to give them chemotherapy, radiation therapy, physical therapy, and then we’ll also have other specialists here as well.”
The center will be funded by more than $145 million along with an additional $1 million in monetary funding provided by the city of McAllen.
Hocker said it will serve in a nonprofit capacity and will treat all Valley residents regardless of whether they have insurance.
The center will also work on treating the more common cancers in the Valley, which Hocker identified as cervical, breast, colorectal and liver cancers.
Explaining that over the next 10 years, Hocker expects there to be a 17% to 20% increase in people diagnosed with cancer and said the center’s goal is to provide residents with “quality” treatment in their hometown that will help.
“Cancer care should be delivered at home where patients can stay with their family, get treated and fight this deadly disease,” Hocker said.
The center will also open the door to several hundred healthcare job opportunities, according to the university.
“This is an academic campus, so when I look at academics it is a component of high-quality clinical care. We’ll actually be able to treat diseases in the Valley, specifically the cancer center will focus on cancers unique to the Valley or more predominantly in the Valley,” Hocker said, adding that the facility will pave the way for a change in patient care.
UTRGV President Bailey told a personal story about why the work conducted at the center holds significance for him.
Bailey said he never got a chance to meet his mother-in-law due to her dying of cancer at the age of 50. He added that in order to receive proper treatment for her cancer she traveled to Houston.
“Part of our dream is to provide the treatment for our people so they don’t have to go elsewhere, they can do it right here in the Valley, so people don’t die of cancer at age 50,” Bailey said.
