Mayo Clinic Breaks Ground on $183M Cancer Treatment Center

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

The Mayo Clinic has broken ground on a $183 million cutting-edge cancer treatment center in Northeast Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reports. The facility is one of a pair planned by the medical institution, along with a similar project in the Mayo Clinic’s home city of Rochester, Minn.

At both treatment centers, Mayo Clinic will employ innovative proton-beam therapy, which pinpoints tumors with unprecedented accuracy, applying focused doses of radiation while minimizing the destructive effect on healthy tissue. Although the price tag appears to be extraordinary for a 100,000-square-foot building, much of the capital cost will go to equipment: a cyclotron and a gantry, a three-story tall, 100-ton device called a gantry. The facility will also includes four treatment rooms.

Slated for a late 2014 – early 2015 opening, the facility will employ a staff of 130 and treat 1,200 patients yearly, the Mayo Clinic estimates.