Cancer patients in the Fort Worth area will have a much larger facility where they can receive treatments next year.
Texas Oncology held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for a new cancer center at 500 S. Henderson St., in the city's medical district, that is expected to open in April 2018.
The four-story facility will allow Texas Oncology to consolidate three smaller locations in Fort Worth. Visitors will be bathed in natural light as they enter the building, which will feature large, panoramic windows.
"We wanted to give patients a real sense of hope and optimism with the design of our building," said Dr. Jerry Barker Jr., a radiation oncologist who will work out of the new center.
Texas Oncology is a network with more than 420 physicians and 175 locations across Texas, according to its website. The network sees 50,000 new patients per year, providing treatments, clinical studies and other services at many of its facilities. The company's community-based approach allows patients to gain access to the latest cancer treatments relatively close to their homes.
However, the new Fort Worth facility will combine three other Texas Oncology facilities that were all within about a mile and a half of each other in the medical district.
The three older Texas Oncology facilities will remain open until the new, grander facility at the southwest corner of South Henderson Street and W Peter Smith Street opens in about a year.
Once the new facility is open, the three other offices will close, Barker said. The older offices are at 1300 W. Terrell Ave.; 750 Eighth Ave.; and 1001 12th Ave.
The three older Fort Worth buildings all offer different services.
"Our patients have often found themselves going from place to place for different services such as imaging, chemotherapy, radiation," Barker said.
Once the new facility opens, all those services will be under one roof, he said.
Click here to read the story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.