Center of Attention
City's state-of-the-art cancer treatment facility features linear accelerator

Radiation therapist Ciro Chairez, center, answers questions for Ralph Richards about the linear accelerator, or radio therapy machine, and demonstrates how it can tilt to get into precise alignment for treating a patient during Thursday's open house at the New Mexico Cancer Center in Gallup. [Photo by Jeffery Jones/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

The newly completed New Mexico Cancer Center was on display during its open house Thursday, allowing visitors to tour the facilities and ask the staff questions. [Photo by Jeffery Jones/Independent]

GALLUP — New Mexico's new cancer treatment center had its grand opening Thursday in Gallup.

The $6 million center is in the process of opening up for business at its location just south of the University of New Mexico-Gallup Branch.

"We will be accepting consultations on Friday," said Dr. Jeffrey Long, who specializes in radiation oncology.

The center is operated by the New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants. Ltd. (NMOHC), a private company that has cancer centers in Albuquerque, Silver City and Ruidosa.

Dr. Barbara McAneny, head oncologist for the company and the person who spearheaded the effort to the cancer center here, said the $6 million figure includes the cancer treatment equipment at the center, all of which is state of the art. The centerpiece is the center's linear accelerator, which cost about $1 million.

NMOHC has been looking at building a cancer center in Gallup for several years, but it wasn't until a year ago that the company's plans were put on the front burner.

The company first had problems with officials for the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital when David Balzer was the hospital's executive director. When NMOHC first brought up the subject with Baltzer, board members said he refused to support the idea because he had hopes that the hospital would open up its own cancer center one day.

Chuck Wright, who replaced Baltzer as director, has pledged his full support for the hospital, saying he hopes that the two can work together to improve the quality of health care for area residents.

With the hospital behind them, NMOHC found itself with another adversary the University of New Mexico.

During the 2006 legislative session, the state gave McKinley County a $500,000 grant to help build a cancer center here and UNM indicated if it got the grant, it would build its own center in Gallup. NMOHC also made a bid for the grant as well and said that even if it didn't get the grant, it planned to build a center anyway.

The county commission agreed to support NMOHC's proposal since it already had the funding it needed as well as the land and was prepared to start building in a couple of months. UNM, on the other hand, indicated it may be years before it could actually build a center.

Since state anti-donation laws prevent the county from giving money directly to the center, the grant was used to purchase cancer equipment which would be a benefit to all county residents and then leased back to NMOHC for $1 a year.

Dr. McAneny said the center will employ six staff members and be open five days a week. The center will provide only treatment and not hospitalization but she said beds may be provided for use by people to use for a couple of hours while they recuperate from the treatments.

"We want to be a part of the community," she said, adding that the center's conference room, which seat 60 people, will be available for use by community groups.

Current statistics indicate that about one of every four people get some form of cancer during their lifetimes and the advantage of having a cancer here is that it will alleviate the need for residents of this area to travel to Albuquerque for treatment.

The center also is equipped with a ceremonial hogan, which Dr. McAneny said is part of the center's efforts to provide a full range of treatment to its Navajo patients, blending traditional and Anglo medicine to treat the disease.

Those who are getting treatment at the present time in Albuquerque or other locations are advised to continue going there, said Dr. Long.

The reason is that the linear accelerator is calibrated differently at different locations it took a team of four almost a month to calibrate the one here so once a treatment starts on one machine, the patient should continue with that machine until the treatment is completed.