Cancer Centers to lease space at building
If negotiations continue smoothly at forming a collaboration between the for-profit Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada and the nonprofit University of California San Diego Nevada Cancer Institute, nearly a third of the space at the Cancer Institute's flagship building in Summerlin will be leased to Comprehensive.
Comprehensive, which already treats more than 60 percent of the cancer patients in the Las Vegas Valley, would operate the pharmacy and exam rooms and provide medical and radiation oncology and diagnostic and infusion services at the 142,00 square-foot building at One Breakthrough Way.
Those details, which come on the heels of last week's disclosure that the area's largest for-profit and nonprofit cancer treatment systems may join together in a business venture in Las Vegas - a sign, according to some physicians, that UC San Diego has run into financial trouble - were released Tuesday to the Review-Journal in a joint statement from the UC San Diego Health System, Comprehensive, and the Nevada Cancer Institute Foundation.
For $18 million in January, UCSD purchased the institute's four-story flagship building, its medical practice and its contracts, including clinical trials.
The deal only went down after Nevada Cancer Institute officials agreed to raise $20.8 million over five years for the UCSD Nevada Cancer Institute.
According to the release, discussions between UCSD and Comprehensive should be completed in December and the venture launched in January.
In the statement, Paul Viviano, CEO of the UC San Diego Health System, said housing practitioners together from the cancer institute and Comprehensive will "enhance patient convenience and scientific collaboration."
According to the statement, Comprehensive will work with the UC San Diego Health System "to bring new clinical research studies to the community," much as it now does through affiliations with the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and US Oncology Research.
"Practitioners will continue to look for ways that bring clinical trials and translational research administered at UC San Diego Moore's Cancer Center to Southern Nevada," the statement reads.
Both the Jonsson and Moore's centers have earned the National Cancer Institute designation, which means they can offer cutting-edge trials that other institutions cannot. There are only 40 such centers in the United States.
"Together, we can collaborate on providing cutting-edge care in the community," said Dr. James Sanchez, practice president of Comprehensive, an affiliate of The US Oncology Network.
According to the statement, the Nevada Cancer Institute Foundation, established by Jim and Heather Murren, the original founders of the institute, will continue "to financially support and heighten the level of cancer research and patient care in Nevada."
Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@review
journal.com or 702-387-2908.
