Enloe Health opens Gonzales Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chico, Calif.

Enloe Health opens Gonzales Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chico

CHICO, Calif. — Enloe Health has officially opened its new Gonzales Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chico, completing a years-long effort to expand cancer care in the Northstate.

The approximately 101,000-square-foot facility is located at 2390 E. 20th St. in Chico’s Meriam Park. Enloe celebrated the opening Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held in partnership with the Chico Chamber of Commerce, followed by tours for community members.

“This project has been in the works for about three and a half, four years,” Enloe Health President and CEO Mike Wiltermood said. “We were wondering what our next big thing should be, especially in the wake of the Camp Fire and the destruction of so many health services in the area.”

Wiltermood said Enloe identified cancer care as a particular need in the region.

Butte County, Tehama County, Glenn County, exceed the statewide average for the incidence of cancer and worse, cancer-related deaths, he said.

The new center is designed to bring multiple cancer-related services together in one location, including surgical oncology, medical oncology, radiation, dermatology and other specialized services. Enloe officials said the center will include 18 doctors, 14 advanced practice providers, 51 infusion treatment spaces, 14 consultation rooms, six cancer departments, three linear accelerators, a specialty pharmacy and an onsite laboratory.

Dr. Sam Mazj, medical director of the cancer center, said the facility is intended to reduce the burden on patients who previously had to travel outside the region for certain treatments.

“When people go through the cancer treatment, they're already going through the side effects of the treatment, the debilitation from the cancer. And when we have it all near home, with what we go in the journey of the cancer treatment, it's great to have it all here in one place,” Mazj said.

Mazj said consolidating services is especially important as cancer treatments continue to evolve.

“People who could live only for few months or years, now they have ability to live and see their grandchildren going, graduating from college, from high school,” he said.

According to Mazj, patients previously had to travel to Sacramento or the San Francisco Bay Area to receive certain specialized services. “This comprehensive care starts from the diagnosis and takes care of the patient treatment that they were not available before in this area,” he said.

The facility offers start-to-finish cancer care and is a "comprehensive" center in name, but it does not currently have an official comprehensive cancer center designation from the National Cancer Institute. Mazj said obtaining an NCI designation is a future goal.

We have work to do,” he said. “We have to recruit more dedicated physician with high specialty, so I'm very optimistic that it will happen soon.

Enloe officials said the new facility is the largest cancer center between Sacramento and Eugene, Oregon. Wiltermood said it is nearly three times the size of Enloe’s original cancer center and comes as Enloe has seen growth in its cancer patient population. “We've grown by nearly 40% over the last couple of years,” he said.

“We're really looking forward to continuing our recruiting, to bringing medical subspecialties here, most importantly so that the community knows that we have their back and that we're gonna be here when they need us,” he said.

Enloe credited community support for helping make the project possible. Dan and Dawn Gonzales donated 13 acres for the project, and the Enloe Health Foundation’s Comprehensive Cancer Center Campaign raised more than $21 million to support construction and the Enloe Health Supportive Therapies program. “We couldn't be more grateful for the community, especially the business community that supported us in this work,” Wiltermood said.

Enloe Health said the Gonzales Comprehensive Cancer Center will officially begin seeing patients Sept. 28. “It is fully developed, it's ready to go,” Mazj said.

Wiltermood said Enloe is also considering how to repurpose its former cancer center as services are consolidated at the new facility. “We're looking at repurposing the cancer center as well as some other buildings that are gonna be vacated as everybody consolidates cancer-related services here,” he said, adding the former space will continue to have a clinical purpose.

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