Cancer center coming to ValleyCare Cancer center coming to ValleyCare (September 23, 2005)

Opening scheduled for early 2006
by Carol Bogart

Beginning next year, residents worried they might have to travel to Castro Valley or beyond for cancer care need worry no more. Although a plan to build a local center fell through earlier this year for lack of funding, ValleyCare Health System has now announced plans for what it calls a comprehensive cancer center to be located at the corner of W. Las Positas Boulevard and Stoneridge Drive.

Saying the center will bring together all elements of cancer diagnosis and treatment under one roof, the center will be on the first floor of the ValleyCare Medical Office Plaza and is expected to open in early 2006.

The center represents a collaborative effort with Valley Medical Oncology Consultants utilizing the resources of the ValleyCare Health Library and Ryan Comer Cancer Resource Center. Already located in the Medical Plaza, the library boasts one of the largest collections of cancer information in northern California. ValleyCare reports that the collaboration will bring together diagnostic services, medical and radiation oncology treatment.

ValleyCare president and CEO Marcy Feit expressed the hope that the planned facility is the first step in what will become "a regional center of excellence for cancer," noting that, "every family in the Tri-valley is affected by cancer in some way."

Chief medical oncologist with Valley Medical Oncology Consultants Dr. Joseph Szumowski reported that the new center will include access to clinical trials, chemotherapy infusion, radiation treatment and, eventually, diagnostic services. Efforts to recruit radiation oncologists are currently underway.

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