The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute celebrated yesterday the grand opening of the $130 million Hillman Cancer Center, which brings cutting-edge cancer research and state-of-the-art patient care from multiple Oakland sites under one roof in Shadyside.
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Guests take a tour of the lobby of the new $130 million, 350,000-square-foot Hillman Cancer Center yesterday in Shadyside. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette) |
"It's been a secret until today," UPCI director Dr. Ronald Herberman said during a news briefing yesterday. "We've been open for over a month. Last Friday was the final move of 70 laboratory teams that came both from various sites in Oakland and included about 12 teams of scientists that came from other cities around the country."
The 350,000-square-foot center, linked by a pedestrian bridge to UPMC Shadyside, will enhance recruitment of scientific and clinical talent and is a key step towards a goal of becoming one of the top five cancer centers in the country, both in terms of federal research funding and recognition among the experts and the public, Herberman said.
Currently, the institute is ranked 11th in the nation in funding from the National Cancer Institute and was ranked 11th for cancer patient care by U.S. News and World Report.
"I've set a vision for myself and my colleagues for us to rise up rapidly over the next five years and actually to get among the top five," Herberman said. "To really go to the next level, to get world-class scientists and to have sufficient facilities for both the vision we have for multidisciplinary patient care and also to expand our research program, we really needed a facility like this."
The building was formally dedicated during a late afternoon ceremony.
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute, said he was thrilled to attend yesterday's events because the work that will be done in places like the Hillman Cancer Center will lead to a "fundamentally different way of dealing with cancer."
He called the Hillman Center a model because of its integration of research and clinical activities and its network of 30 community diagnosis and treatment facilities.
When the National Cancer Act was passed in 1971, the expectation was that cancer would be vanquished by the end of the decade, von Eschenbach said.
"We didn't have the weapons with which to fight then," von Eschenbach said. But "we are now beginning to understand cancer at its genetic, molecular and cellular levels. We can now not only find it and eliminate it, but we are beginning to learn how to control it, how to specifically target interventions that are designed for the unique mechanisms that are responsible for one cancer vs. a different kind of cancer.
"I do believe we are going to see much more rapid progress today" in conquering cancer, von Eschenbach said. "I'm not thinking, gosh, we're not going to get there for another 50 years."
Anita Srikameswaran can be reached at anitas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3858.
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