SAN ANTONIO — A game changer for cancer patients right here in San Antonio. UT Health unveils the cornerstone for a $430 million multispecialty care and research hospital. The facility will have a huge impact for cancer patients here in the Alamo City and Bexar County.
UT Health is calling it a destination center for research and treatment of cancer and other complex diseases that disproportionately impact the people of South Texas, basically a one-stop shop for all cancer needs.
"Cancer is a horrible experience, but being treated so well and with such compassion and empathy made a major difference and it really did help a lot," said Cecilia Castaneda, who is a stage 3 breast cancer survivor and had a double mastectomy.
She knows how important it is that UT Health expand with this new facility and save lives just like hers.
"It is something that, I don't know, you can never really say thank you enough," she said.
"The realization of this new hospital represents something unique and new for San Antonio, a place where clinical expertise built on the backbone of discovery and nurtured in an atmosphere of learning will thrive," said William L. Henrich, the President and a Professor of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.
The eight-story, 144 bed hospital, which is being built on Ewing Haskell between Hamilton Wolfe and Wurzbach, will deliver new cancer care opportunities for all types of cancer so people won't have to travel hundreds of miles.
"We're going to be able to deliver not only stem cell transplantation, but new forms of immunotherapy and cellular based therapies, new ways of delivering radiation therapy, new laboratory testing for the most up to date genetic tests for cancer, as well as new approaches to cancer imaging," said Dr. Ruben Mesa, the Executive Director of the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson.
The new facility will not only serve cancer patients, but it will also be a major site for early phase clinical trials for new cancer therapies. It is expected to be completed by 2024.