PEMBROKE PINES — Memorial Healthcare System on Wednesday unveiled its $125 million free-standing cancer center stocked with the newest technology and designed for collaboration among specialists.
Whether a patient needs chemotherapy, radiation, a wig-fitting or simply just wants to buy products that are chemical-free they can do that all within an expansive four-story building in Pembroke Pines. The building at Flamingo Road and Pines Boulevard is created with big windows to optimize sunlight, and most treatment rooms face a rooftop garden or the nearby CB Smith Park..
“It’s light and bright because lots of times cancer centers are dark and dingy,” said Lara Scrimenti, administrative director of clinical service for Memorial Cancer Institute. “So this one is really beautiful and I think it will give a lot of hope to our patients.”
The South Broward health system bought the former site of Toys R Us in 2018 to create the new Memorial Cancer Institute, which will bring outpatient cancer services housed in various buildings at Memorial Hospital West into a single location.
“With all of the neighborhoods around here growing, we had to open many small offices, and we are at capacity,” said Dr. Luis Raez, medical director for the Memorial Cancer Institute. “But it’s not only the convenience of being in the same building we are excited about, it’s the advancement in technology.”
Patients will be able to swipe into the building with a personalized ID and have a care team know their location and greet them.
On the first floor, there is the Center for Body, Mind and Spirit with a salon, prosthetic fittings, a retail shop and massage therapy. In addition, the first floor houses a lab for blood work along with physicians’ offices, and the north side is for radiation oncology with the newest machines to deliver radiation more precisely. As the doctors say, “We are working in millimeters.”
Pointing to a new, giant Varian machine for radiation, Dr. Ignacio Castellon, Medical Director of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Cancer Institute, said, “You can get a cone beam CAT scan rather quickly so you can set the patient up very quickly, efficiently, and essentially you can deliver the treatment precisely and practically in minutes.”
Castellon says along with the machines, new software enhancements will improve treatments. One of those enhancements is a breathing monitor. “The system is able to track where the tumor is in relation to any movement with breathing. We will be able to deliver the radiation to account for that.”
Until now, the radiation department at Memorial West had to alternate the days it offered radiotherapy or procedures with the Cyber Knife used to treat prostate cancer and brain tumors. Now, with more space in the new building, both will operate at the same time. “We’ve increased access to patient care,” Castellon said.
The second floor of the 125,000-square-foot Memorial Cancer Institute houses a family resource center with patient advocates and information on clinical trials. The floor also houses the solid tumor and hematology practice for patients with cancerous blood disorders or Lymphoma. “These services have been in different places on our campus so now they are coming together under one roof,” says Dr. Hugo Fernandez, chair of malignant hematology and cellular therapy, which has a partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. The examination rooms for this practice area have been expanded, with 63 patient rooms, up from 29.
The additional space and resources, Fernandez said, likely will lead to new discoveries.
“It allows us to have all the heads together to share approaches to treatment and the things we’ve learned,” he said. “We’re hoping to develop an early-phase drug program to be able to treat folks that maybe don’t have any other options because they’ve already exhausted what’s currently out there.”
Fernandez said he also views the new building as a nice place to train young doctors.
“This is the era where people are living longer, and as they do, cancer is going to be more prevalent in their lives,” he said. “So having the space and ability to see more patients and training future oncologists of this program is important.”
Memorial has dedicated the third-floor space for breast cancer care. Memorial went from 11 infusion chairs for breast cancer treatments to 18. Dr. Adriana Milillo Naraine, a breast medical oncologist at Memorial Cancer Institute said on average, women with breast cancer come for 16 treatments. “We see a lot of patients, and we’re growing,” she said.
“All the treatment and support staff will be right here in this building,” Milillo Naraine said. “Right now a patient would go see multiple physicians on multiple days here. We will have the radiation department on the first floor and the surgical breast oncologist right here next to us and all the ancillary services.”
On the top floor is the meditation sanctuary, roof garden and more infusion treatment rooms for all other types of cancer.
The pharmacy on the top floor is equipped with steel machines that help mix and measure toxic agents that kill cancer cells but prevent the person operating it from inhaling them. “Nothing pushes out. everything’s pulled in,” explained Meredith Feinberg, Vice President of Oncology Services for Memorial Healthcare System. A few feet away are rows of screens where specialists monitor the drugs that are mixed to ensure accurate dosage. “The way we have it set up is there are multiple steps of verification to ensure safety steps are being taken,” she said.
Maray Salina, director of oncology support services for Memorial, said she now has the room to offer services such as yoga, meditation, prayer, family resources and education. “It’s the holistic part of care,” she said.
In its first year, Feinberg said, Memorial anticipates the building to be used for at least 30,000 chemotherapy and infusion treatments and as as many as 28,000 patient visits.
The building will open for its first patients in January. Memorial Cancer Institute will continue to operate satellite offices at Memorial Regional in Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Miramar.
“We are consolidating but we are also expanding,” said Raez, the medical director. “We want to be prepared. As there is more demand for cancer care, we will be ready.”
Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.