Officials with University of Arizona Cancer Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital held a ceremony Thursday to mark the opening of the new facility in downtown Phoenix.
The new center is one of about 40 other facilities nationwide designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, which means it has a research focus and offers clinical trials to patients.
City Councilwoman Kate Gallego was among several elected officials to attend the ceremony. She said the facility is the latest addition to the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, which is a larger city effort to invest in the medical and bioscience industries.
"We want to build an innovation based economy that will have a wide variety of different sectors," said Gallego. "So that if one sector such as housing has a downturn we have a lot of other areas where jobs are continuing to grow."
Medical staff will begin seeing patients at the new center on Aug. 24.
