UC Health opens new $131 million blood cancer healing center

UC Health will soon serve patients at its new blood cancer center, which officials say will set apart the hospital system from others in the region.

UC isn’t the only hospital system that treats blood cancer in Cincinnati: Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Jewish Hospital has a Blood Cancer Center, and TriHealth also has a Cancer & Blood Institute.

“We’re able to integrate not only our clinical mission where we’re caring for patients but also the research,” Cory Shaw, UC Health's president and CEO, said Monday before an event celebrating the new center. “And that’s all going to happen in this building.”

The new $131 million facility has 30 inpatient beds, outpatient clinics and research labs running over 40 clinical trials to help discover new treatments for blood cancer. The first patient will be seen July 10.

Relapse is common for patients, so the new Blood Cancer Healing Center at UC Health's Corryville campus was built with them in mind.

“The thing about blood cancers is oftentimes they become chronic illnesses,” said Shaw.

Wellness areas will help teach patients how to prepare meals and practice mindfulness – key therapeutic components for maintaining one’s health during what can be a long road to recovery.

“You come here, you get access to all the services,” Shaw said.

Finding new treatments is a key component of blood cancer care

The sheer variety of blood cancers is part of what makes them difficult to treat, according to Dr. John Byrd, who’s treated patients with blood cancer for 28 years.

“Although they represent approximately 10 to 20% of all cancers, in that 10 to 20%, there are probably 100 or more subtypes,” he said.

For some types of blood cancers, such as Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, “Every single patient with a diagnosis has a different presentation.”

This is why clinical trials, which allow patients to access new treatments that are still being tested, are a key component of what the blood cancer healing center has to offer.

Vince Richardson, 61, a former football coach and physical education teacher, knows firsthand the benefits of these new treatments.

His multiple myeloma returned over a decade after his initial diagnosis, so he received a new treatment known as CAR T-cell therapy through a clinical trial at UC Health.

Richardson was nervous when his doctor told him that he would be the first in the region to receive CAR T-cell therapy for his condition, but ultimately, he says it was “amazing.”

He felt much better than he did following stem cell transplant, the standard treatment for patients with multiple myeloma.

“It was much easier than a stem cell,” he said. “I wasn't as sick.”

Following the procedure, “I was ready to go home and start vacuuming,” he said.

Will the blood cancer center help Cincinnati secure an NCI cancer designation?

UC Health executives are hoping that the new blood cancer center will bring them one step closer to getting an NCI cancer designation.

The Enquirer has previously reported on how the prestigious designation – which would unlock millions of dollars in federal funding and attract industry partners and talented healthcare workers alike – has evaded the Cincinnati area for over 25 years.

Despite having six hospital systems, Cincinnati is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without an NCI-designated cancer center.

This fall, Shaw said that UC Health will be convening an external advisory board to help apply for the NCI designation. But the timing of the application itself was undetermined.

“We don’t have a specific timeline yet,” he said. “But I’m hopeful and optimistic it’s gonna happen soon.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC Health's new blood cancer healing center offers new treatments