OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahomans seeking cancer care soon will have a specialized center much closer to home.

"Now our families have to go 500 miles to the west or to the north or east or to the south to have this critical treatment," University of Oklahoma President David Boren said Tuesday afternoon.

When the doors of the OU Cancer Institute building open next year, patients will receive high-quality care much closer to their homes and families, Boren said.

Boren addressed a crowd at the Health Sciences Center marking the half-way point of construction of the new center on the OU HSC campus.

After the state legislature in 2001 called for Oklahoma to have a state-of-the-art cancer facility, the effort behind the institute started, said Robert S. Mannel, director of the OU Cancer Institute and Rainbolt Family Chair in Cancer.

Through a combination of private and public funds (including a portion of the tobacco tax), the institute already has begun treating patients at the OU Medical Center and the Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center. In addition, OU CI members are conducting more than 100 cancer research projects supported by more than $20 million in funding, according to information provided by the institute.

It's only through that research and the implementation of those research findings that Oklahomans will begin to see better treatment of cancer, Mannel said.

The institute also trains the next generation of health care workers as part of OU.

"They will learn in the midst of quality patient care a new model of quality patient care," said M. Dewayne Andrews, executive dean and vice president for health affairs.

Construction began on the state-of-the-art, 210,000-square-foot facility in November 2008, and is expected to be completed in November or December of 2010, Mannel said.

The new facility will be a one-stop-shop of patient care, where patients can receive all aspects of their treatment and be supported by others.

Boren summed up the new facility in his address.

"This will be a center for healing, and healing of the whole person, not just fighting the disease," he said.

Jim Edwards, a nearly-five-year pancreatic cancer survivor, was treated at the OU Cancer Institute and now participates in pancreatic cancer patient support groups. He said he tells others diagnosed with the disease to come to OU for their care.

"All throughout treatment at the OU Health Sciences Center we were treated with care and dignity and respect," he said.