Sparrow hospital cut the ribbon for the Herbert-Herman Cancer Center on Tuesday, starting a new era of cancer treatment in mid-Michigan.
The state of the art facility will provide resources and treatment in every aspect for patients. The Herbert and Herman families say it's a dream come true.
Doctors say the new center is also investing heavily into clinical trials. Dr. Gordan Srklovic is the director of those clinical trials and believes that it will revolutionize the way cancer in treated.
Part of what will make those trials so effective will be genomics. Corrie Bourdon is a cancer genetic counselor. She talks to families and identifies genetic possibilities in cancer. That can change how a particular form of cancer is treated, and this new facility will be able to tailor that treatment if necessary to more effectively treat cancer.
Survivors who have gone through the process at the former cancer center believe this new center will be phenomenal for patients. Tim Brannan fought lymphoma in 2010. He claimed the previous center was running out of space when he was there.
The Herbert-Herman Cancer Center, though, will be almost double the size of the previous center.
Survivors also explain what it means that such a high-tech facility will be right here in Lansing. They say the stress of cancer, combined with the toll chemotherapy can take, adding travel on top of that can be just one more thing. With this new facility, that won't be a concern for people here in mid-Michigan.
Instead, they'll be able to focus on their treatment, and still go home and sleep in their own beds.
That's why survivors say it will be a "crown jewel" for the community.
Watch our live coverage from the opening ceremony below:
