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DMC breaks ground on Farmington Hills-based cancer treatment center.

LISA FEIN
Special to the Jewish News

mination of my desire to give back
to the community where we have
lived, raised our children and have
many friends."
The Barbara Ann Karmanos
Cancer Institute, which the
National Cancer Institute has des-
ignated a "comprehensive cancer
center" — one of 36 nationally —
will manage -the Weisberg center.
Dr. Jeffrey Forman, interim
chairman of the Department of
Radiation Oncology at Karmanos,
will be the Weisberg center's med-
ical director.
The center will serve 500-700
patients a year in the medical oncolo-
gy area and 750-1,000 patients a year
in radiology oncology.

B

eating cancer is hard
enough without the
inconvenience of travel-
ing long distances for
outpatient treatment. However,
thanks in part to the generosity of
one West Bloomfield couple, a new
center will be opening next year in
western Oakland County.
On June 16, the Detroit
Medical Center broke ground in
Farmington Hills for the new
Lawrence and Idell Weisberg
Cancer Treatment Center. The
12,000-square-foot facility is slated
to open in July 2001 next to
DMC's Rose Imaging Center,
32005 Northwestern Highway,
between Middlebelt and 14 Mile.
The Weisberg center will offer
chemotherapy, radiation and other
sophisticated cancer treatments in a
setting designed to promote com-
fort and healing.
"There's nothing more frightening
than hearing you have cancer," says
Lawrence Weisberg, who with his
wife Idell contributed $2 million of
the $7 million development cost.
Cancer is "such a violent, terri-
ble disease," he says, but "every-
thing about this center will be
designed to remove some of that
fear. It will be a very soothing
place. It will be very bright and
cheerful with windows that will
look out into gardens and ponds. It
is not dark and impersonal like a
hospital.
"This project was very appealing
to me," Weisberg adds. "It is a cul-

Taking Its Toll

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Lawrence and Idell Weisberg jump-start the fund raising for a new

Karmanos Cancer Institute affiliate by donating $2 million.

According to the Karmanos Cancer
Institute, Oakland County had
8,368 deaths from cancer in 1996.
The most common killers are lung,
colon, breast and prostate cancer.
The American Cancer Society
estimates that 44,100 Michigan
residents will be diagnosed with
. cancer this year. Nationwide, more
than 1.2 million people are project-
ed to receive that diagnosis.
Dr. Forman says many people
prefer the convenience of treatment
near where they live rather than
going to the major medical centers
in downtown Detroit.
Studies show that the treatment
setting has an impact on the patient's
therapeutic progress, the doctor says.
The Weisberg center will have much
to offer in that regard.
"Chemotherapy rooms will be
big and look onto healing gardens,"

7/14
2000

97