Tucson's University Medical Center is planning to construct a new cancer center on the site of the former Tucson General Hospital to help meet the overwhelming demand currently taxing the Arizona Cancer Center's resources. Although no opening date for the new center has yet been determined, UMC hopes by June 1 to begin demolishing the former osteopathic hospital, located at 3838 N. Campbell Ave.

Only six years after opening its $23 million, 50,000-square-foot addition, the ACC finds itself forced to turn away new patients for lack sufficient clinic space. The planned center will house the ACC's patient-care clinics, allowing the current cancer center facility to focus entirely on cancer research, said UMC Chief Executive Officer Greg Pivirotto in the Arizona Daily Star.

Dr. Raymond Nagle, ACC acting director, told the Star that the new center will feature a special focus on breast cancer, including a 24-hour urgent care center for patients suffering side effects from their treatment. The center will be located 2 1/2 miles north of UMC and ACC.

"What we want is a really centralized facility where patients can get all the services they need," said Nagle. "Now women have to go to a mammography clinic in one location. They have to go someplace else to see a surgeon, and probably someplace else to see an oncologist. What we are hoping is to put this all together so they don't have to travel all over town."

Pivirotto told the Star the UMC will ask the Arizona Board of Regents today to authorize a bond sale to raise approximately $25 million for the new cancer center and renovations to UMC, including an expanded intensive-care unit that will open next week.

UMC is a private, nonprofit hospital located at the Arizona Health Sciences Center, adjacent to the University of Arizona. AHSC includes the colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and the School of Health-Related Professions as well as the University Physicians medical group.

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For more information:

"UMC to build new cancer center," Arizona Daily Star, 01/21/2004

University Medical Center

Arizona Cancer Center

Arizona Board of Regents