By Duke Medicine News and Communications

State and local dignitaries will join leaders of Duke Medicine this Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, in breaking ground for the new Duke Cancer Center.  

The event will take place at the construction site on Trent Drive between the School of Nursing and Duke Clinic.

The program will begin at 11:30 a.m. with remarks from Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of Duke University Health System. Governor Bev Perdue will address the gathering at 11:40 a.m.

Additional speakers include Duke University President Richard Brodhead, Kevin Sowers, CEO, Duke University Hospital, and cancer survivor Jamie Valvano Howard.

A luncheon will follow the groundbreaking.

The new Duke Cancer Center is being built to better serve thousands of new cancer patients throughout North Carolina and beyond who will be needing care in the coming years.

The center will be a healthy, light-filled, healing environment devoted to outpatient cancer services and clinical research. The 267,000 square feet of additional space will feature terraces, a café, and a rooftop garden where patients may elect to have their chemotherapy, among other amenities.

Construction will create 1,500 new jobs and an estimated 1,000 permanent new jobs upon completion in 2012.