The Most Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, speaks during an announcement that the new regional cancer center in Wheeling will be known as the WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex. (File Photo)

WHEELING — Cancer treatment in the Ohio Valley will soon have a new home — and that home already has a name.

The WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex is expected to open in the fall of 2028 and provide the region with cutting edge cancer treatment without having to travel elsewhere.

Where the former Ohio Valley Medical Center once stood, the new WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex will be built in its place. The project has an estimated cost of $122.6 million, but WVU Medicine North Region President Douglass Harrision said it’s worth every penny.

“This is a commitment to local health care – the largest source of employment in the state,” Harrison said in April. “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.”

The center will be a four-story, 127,000- square-foot state-of-the-art outpatient cancer center. It will be a one-stop spot for patients to receive treatment, and will include infusion therapy, radiation oncology, imaging, labs, specialty clinics and space for future expansion.

The center’s name is courtesy of a $10 million donation from the Wheeling Hospital Foundation, a joint venture between WVU Medicine and the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital is a Catholic hospital, as it was before WVU Medicine assumed control.

In announcing the gift, the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, said there was no better person after which to name the cancer center than St. Joseph, who has a deep connection to the diocese.

“St. Joseph took care of the infant Jesus,” Brennan said at the August announcement. “He is also the patron saint of the Catholic Church and the entire church, and specifically the patron saint of our Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and the patron of our cathedral here in Wheeling. To name this cancer center after him I think is very, very fitting.”

This new center not only represents a major investment in the Ohio Valley economy, but also represents a major investment for WVU Medicine in the future of health care in the region. Dr. Jondavid Pollock, radiation oncologist with WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, said the impact of this cancer center will be felt for decades to come.

“For too long in this part of the Upper Ohio Valley, there have been small satellites of cancer care with a focus on market share and economic feasibility,” Pollock said in August. “The fact that the grounds of OVMC will serve as the site where this great new cancer center will be built speaks to WVU’s goal to integrate and not separate health care advances in Wheeling.”