Plan to keep Nevada Cancer Institute going suffers setback

The plan to keep the Nevada Cancer Institute going in some form collapsed on Thursday because of restrictions written nearly a decade ago on how its campus could be used.

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada halted negotiations that began six months ago with institute owner University of California San Diego Health System to lease more than one-fourth of the institute's flagship building, plus take on a sizable but unspecified number of patients and staff.

The building is on land that Howard Hughes Properties Inc. sold in 2003 to the original institute, which was sold to UCSD in January through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. For-profit Universal Health Services Inc., owner of the nearby Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, inserted a noncompete covenant at the time of the land deal that only a nonprofit facility could operate there. Comprehensive Cancer is a for-profit practice.

Several weeks of talks with Universal Health to alter the property restrictions hit a dead end, according to James Kilber, executive director of Comprehensive Cancer.

"We were looking for a way to lease the space and provide oncological care," Kilber said. "Unfortunately, without this waiver (of the restriction), that pretty much ends it for us. We did not want to see the demise of the Nevada Cancer Institute."

Added Dr. James Sanchez, Comprehensive Cancer's practice president: "We still have future planned expansion in northwest Las Vegas and Henderson. As it stands right now, this opportunity has gone up in smoke."

A UC San Diego spokeswoman declined to comment on the Comprehensive Cancer's move. Summerlin Hospital officials did not return calls seeking comment.

A month ago, institute CEO Michael "Mickey" Goldman told the staff that they would be terminated on Dec. 31 after top officials in San Diego decided to end the direct presence in Las Vegas. However, Kilber said he understood that operations would continue until March 1 when Comprehensive Cancer was originally supposed to move in.

Early this year, the institute staff included 135 people not involved with research, but an updated number was not available. The current number of patients is unknown, but the institute has seen an average 3,000 people a year.

In mid-November, after reports of the layoffs and the transfer of the patients to other physicians, UCSD issued a statement that the institute would remain and "collaborate with premier local oncology practices to offer a broader spectrum of diagnostic and treatment options." In essence, UCSD would have remained a landlord and brought clinical trials and services like genomic sequencing to patients of its tenants, with Comprehensive Cancer taking 43,000 square feet of the 142,000-square-foot main building.

But with Universal Health refusing to budge on the nonprofit restriction, it could be difficult to find anyone who could move into the institute's building.

In the meantime, said Kilber, patients have begun to find new doctors, although Goldman pledged that UCSD would make arrangements for everyone before halting operations.

"We have already seen some fallout with the news of what's happening at the institute," Kilber said. "Patients are coming and knocking on our doors."

In addition, Comprehensive Cancer hired on Wednesday one institute physician, Dr. Karen Jacks, to start March 1. She will bring her patients and some of her staff with her, Dr. Sanchez said.

Comprehensive Cancer, the largest oncology practice in Las Vegas, sees 17,000 patients a year at 13 locations. Some in the medical industry have estimated their market share for cancer treatment at 60 percent, but Kilber called that "a little high." Kilber said discussions with UCSD began in May or June and became much more serious in mid-September. This led to the signing of an pact allowing exclusive negotiations for 90 days that will expire Dec. 17.

The institute started a decade ago as a high-profile effort to bring higher quality of cancer treatment to Las Vegas. But the institute tumbled into bankruptcy last year after amassing nearly $100 million in debt without the revenue to repay it. UCSD emerged as the only bidder for the building and the medical practice.

Contact reporter Tim O'Reiley at toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.