WVU Medicine celebrated its upcoming regional cancer center Friday morning at its site, the former Ohio Valley Medical Center campus. During the event, WVU Medicine officials unveiled new renderings for the facility, which is scheduled to open in October 2028.

WHEELING — Visitors to the site of the future WVU Medicine Regional Cancer Center on Friday could almost sense the magnitude of the impact this venture will have on the community — an impact that promises to transform not only the lives of area cancer patients and their families but also the economic landscape of the Ohio Valley.

Officials gathered Friday morning in the upper lot of what used to be known as the former site of the Ohio Valley Medical Center. The buildings that for decades served OVMC on a sprawling Center Wheeling hospital campus are now gone, offering a new view of the city and the river valley from a nine-acre site that for the next couple of years can safely be called the future site of the new WVU Medicine Wheeling Cancer Center.

“On April 14, Wednesday of this week, WVU Health System approved $460 million in capital funding to support a variety of projects — very important to note — outside of Morgantown,” said Douglass Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital.

“In 2024, the system approved $400 million in capital projects. Nearly a billion dollars reinvested in two years, without state funding, without federal funding – this is money the health system is putting back into the communities we serve to create access and care points for the members and citizens of West Virginia.”

New renderings of the center were unveiled during Friday’s announcement in the wake of the official procurement of the investment package. Officials provided an updated timeline, discussed the needed services that will be available at this location in the near future and stressed the economic “ripple effect” this investment will have on the community.

“This regional cancer center will help transform the city of Wheeling and hopefully attract other companies that are contemplating doing business here,” Harrison said. “Hopefully this $122 million investment will prove that Wheeling is open for business, and together, we will all prosper.”

Harrison noted that Wheeling Hospital was the first hospital in both the city and the state of West Virginia – in fact it pre-dates the state itself. Four decades later in 1890, City Hospital was built on the site of the new project – a health care institution that later became Ohio Valley General Hospital and eventually OVMC.

“This land has always been a place of healing, and we plan to keep it that way,” Harrison said.

Guests in attendance at Friday’s announcement were impressed by the new views offered from the site now that the OVMC buildings have been removed. Officials noted that the design of the new regional cancer center will highlight the vistas from the hillside property – and the acreage available will give the facility room to grow in the future.

“This is a sneak peek at what’s coming,” Harrison said of the new renderings. “We expect to see our first patient in October of 2028.”

photo by: Eric Ayres

Douglass Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, speaks Friday at the former Ohio Valley Medical Center site where a new regional cancer center will be built.

Dr. Hannah Hazard-Jenkins, executive chair and director of the WVU Cancer Institute, described the center as “127,000 square feet of hope” that will be designed so that patients feel welcome and safe.

A cancer diagnosis represents a profound change in the trajectory of a person’s life from that moment, Hazard-Jenkins said, noting that it takes friends, family and the community to help them get through it.

“The way we can help people – not just through medication, through radiation and surgery – is by keeping them close to home, by keeping them in their communities,” she said. “We feel very strongly that being able to deliver coordinated cancer care is the mission of the Cancer Institute. You should be able to get the highest level of care possible in your hometown or in your own community.”

Hazard-Jenkins said the new center will house oncologists, radiation treatment facilities, on-site labs, imaging centers and other related health care facilities all in one location, with the potential of more support services being added through expansions over time.

Josh Jefferson, chairman of the board of directors for WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital and Reynolds Memorial Hospital, highlighted the significance the new regional cancer center will have on the area. He applauded the board’s immediate past president, Bernie Twigg, for his efforts toward helping to bring this long-awaited project to fruition.

“This is an investment in our collective future,” Jefferson said. “This is a generational announcement, one that will change the course of history for this area, for this Panhandle and for this state. Its positive impact will be measured far beyond the walls of such an incredible building.”

Harrison said this week’s announcement by WVU Health System about the funding was a “green light to proceed” with work to build the regional cancer center.

“This is a commitment to local health care – the largest source of employment in the state,” Harrison said. “This investment reflects our mission to change the health trajectory of the state of West Virginia. Not only will this cancer center transform health care in our community and surrounding communities, it will also support the WVU Health System and our journey to become the only NCI (National Cancer Institute) designated cancer center in the state.”

Harrison added that moving forward, a philanthropy campaign connected to the project will be opening as work to bring the center to life continues to unfold. He encouraged those in the community who can participate in the campaign to do so.

“When it comes to health care, my advice is ‘stay local,'” Harrison said. “We’re building something very special in the Northern Panhandle.”