Changes at Nevada Cancer Institute to handle more patients

The Nevada Cancer Institute is modifying its Summerlin home to accommodate its growing patient load and its quest for more physicians and researchers, health officials say.

Construction crews will begin converting about 5,000 square feet in office space into clinical labs next week at One Breakthrough Way.

The space, intentionally set aside for future expansion, will increase the institute's number of clinical labs to 12, from nine, and free up area inside the research facility's main building for more patient exam rooms.

Completion of the project is expected within the next few months and will add five additional patient exam rooms.

The research facility has nine exam rooms to serve 2,000 medical and radiation oncology patients, officials say.

Sandra Murdock, president and chief operating officer, said adding those patient exam rooms is essential to meeting the facility's growing demand.

For the first half of this year, patient visits are up roughly 34 percent as compared to the same period last year.

About 8 percent of the cancer facility's patients travel from another state for treatment or to participate in research studies, said Jennifer McDonnell, a spokeswoman for the institute.

The majority of those patients come from Arizona, California and Illinois, home of NVCI director Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang.

Vogelzang said the nonprofit's board of directors and senior leadership had anticipated patient volumes to increase over the years but did not expect to see the current levels until March 2008.

Vogelzang and Murdock attribute much of the growth to Nevadans not having to leave the state for certain cancer treatments.

Additionally, they say offering access to cancer and support services under one roof is attractive to patients.

Murdock said expanding the facility's labs should help in recruiting more cancer researchers to Nevada.

Having more space for researchers and their teams makes for an easier transition and little disruption in a researchers' work at another facility.

NVCI's goal is to have 80 physicians and researchers by 2012.

Currently there are 25.