Duke starts cancer center

DURHAM -- In a famous 1993 speech, cancer-stricken former N.C. State basketball coach Jimmy Valvano launched his research foundation with a plea for money that he said might not save his own life, but might save his children's lives.

Turns out, he was prophetic.

Valvano died that year, and 13 years later daughter Jamie Valvano Howard was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 33, the mother of two young boys, and scared to death.

The cancer center at Duke - which has received money from the foundation named for her father - saved her life, she said Friday. Doctors there used genetic testing to find a gene mutation she inherited from her father; and from there, they were able to aggressively fight her breast cancer.

A healthy Valvano Howard presented her story Friday as proof of Duke's cancer-fighting abilities, and Duke Medicine used her tale to put a human face on its work.

Valvano Howard's story highlighted the groundbreaking for Duke's new cancer center, a seven-floor whopper of a project that will adjoin the current Morris Cancer Clinic and consolidate outpatient cancer services and clinical services currently spread across the medical campus.

Construction starts now and is expected to end in 2012, one part of a massive, $700 million Duke Medicine expansion that will also include a new medical pavilion focusing on surgery and intensive-care services.

The groundbreaking included a succession of Duke officials who spoke of the university's grand ambitions, and drew plaudits as well from Gov. Bev Perdue, who said Duke's brand is recognized as far away as Asia, where she recently traveled on an economic development trip.

Duke's cancer center plans follow the opening this fall of another major cancer treatment center just down the road at UNC-Chapel Hill. Officials at both universities say the two projects address a clear and growing need. In North Carolina, health department officials predict a 14 percent growth in new cancer cases between 2006 and 2011, and an increase of more than 20 percent in the Triangle over the same period.

"I don't ask if I'll be diagnosed, but when," Perdue told about 200 Duke supporters attending the ceremony. "Because it's so prevalent among us."

But Victor Dzau, CEO of the Duke University Health System, spoke in grand terms about Duke's research ambitions.

"Cure," he said Friday. "People are a little nervous about using the word. but we're not."

Latest Comment View all comments

Images