Major gifts add to cancer treatment options in the Kansas City area

The new Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Center has opened at Truman Medical Centers.

The $6 million, 17,000-square-foot center on Hospital Hill was made possible by a $2.3 million gift from the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation plus other philanthropic support. It triples the size of Truman’s cancer treatment facility.

“It just doesn’t feel like you are actually in a hospital,” said Norma Steve, a Kansas City woman who has received cancer treatments at Truman since October.

The new center, on the fifth floor of a building on Holmes Street across the street from the main hospital building, includes a welcome area, exam rooms, chemotherapy infusion rooms, a procedure room, a pharmacy and a boutique for wig and prosthetic fittings.

In addition to the Bloch family, other major donors were the Hall Family Foundation and the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation.

The center enhances Truman’s collaboration with the University of Kansas Cancer Center’s Midwest Cancer Alliance. Among other things, Truman’s medical students have increased access to the alliance’s clinical trials and the alliance has a broader demographic sample of patients.

This story was originally published February 26, 2014 at 10:32 AM with the headline "Major gifts add to cancer treatment options in the Kansas City area."