Hoping to avoid a legislative battle, University of Hawai'i administrators are hastening negotiations on the development of a new cancer center in Kaka'ako.

University officials have finalized an agreement with the Hawai'i Community Development Authority on the location of the new Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i, which will be housed on a site next to the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Ground breaking for the new research facility is projected to occur in mid-2010, according to UH President David McClain, who cited the state's cigarette tax as a major funding source for the project.

"We thank the Legislature for identifying a source of funds for our efforts via an increase in the cigarette tax," he said. "With a funding stream assured, we have been working deliberately and diligently to bring our dreams to reality."

Operations at the facility could begin as early as 2012, McClain told members of the Senate Higher Education Committee last Thursday.

"Assuming negotiations with the developer come to a successful conclusion, the design phase for a research and clinical trials facility is estimated to be completed by mid-2010, at which time we will proceed into construction," McClain said. "The construction will take approximately 30 months, with a projected opening date in late 2012 or early 2013."

Sen. David Ige, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, warned university administrators at the hearing that the research center's financing isn't guaranteed due to the state's $1.8 billion revenue shortfall. Ige added that money allocated from the cigarette tax for the cancer center's construction may not be reliable.

"I can tell you that people have been looking at that fund and it has been idle for two years," Ige said. "If the college is not ready to hit the ground running, those funds will be gone."

Sen. Rosalyn Baker, a member of the Senate Higher Education Committee, agreed, adding that the state Legislature, National Cancer Institute and local cancer patients need the university to commit to a firm timetable for the center's completion.

"It's taken far, far too long to get to this point," Baker said. "The National Cancer Institute, along with everyone on this committee, is expecting a stronger commitment from the university and the state for cancer care."

Discussions with Townsend Capital, LLC, the project's developer, are progressing rapidly, according to McClain, despite recent market fluctuations. If the unversity is unable to obtain revenue through the issuance of government obligation bonds, officials hope to forge a private-public partnership, under which Townsend would own and lease the new building back to the university.

Executives from the Queen's Medical Center, Kuakini Medical Center and Hawai'i Pacific Health Center issued a joint statement supporting the research center, erasing concerns that the new facility will compete with local hospitals offering similar treatment.

"We are all seeking to improve the care of cancer patients in Hawai'i and believe that a community-wide clinical research collaboration creates significant opportunities to support this goal, through the creation of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i," said Art Ushijima, CEO of the Queen's Health Systems and the Queen's Medical Center, in a statement.

Employing a matrix-style clinical care system, the cancer center will allow physicians and scientists to conduct clinical cancer research within the community hospital systems, said Dr. Michele Carbone, interim director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i.

"Under the matrix model, rather than having a single clinical facility operated by the university as part of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i, the research performed at the center will be translated and applied to diagnosis and treatment at already existing hospital facilities throughout the state by doctors located at those facilities," Carbone said. "We believe this is the most effective and practical model for Hawai'i."

Kuakini Medical Center, the Queen's Medical Center and the four hospitals of Hawai'i Pacific Health all favor the matrix model for medical care, used by two-thirds of all the cancer centers in the United States.

An update on negotiations will be provided at the Feb. 20 meeting of the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents.