Site work has begun on the $233 million Mayo Clinic integrated oncology building in Jacksonville that will include proton beam and carbon ion therapy.
Construction will follow on the building for completion in early 2025.
The city is reviewing a construction permit for the almost $76.3 million foundation and shell of the building on the Mayo Clinic Florida campus at 4500 San Pablo Road.
Full construction documents are expected this fall, according to the permit application.
Mayo Communications Manager Kevin Punsky said that upon completion, the three-story, 225,000-square-foot building will include two proton beam treatment rooms, one carbon ion treatment room, two linear accelerators, CT and MRI patient imaging, patient exam areas and treatment planning spaces for clinical staff.
The facility will include a two-gantry proton radiotherapy system.
The construction also will have space for education and staff and patient support areas.
He said the design is not complete yet.
The pending permit shows The Robins & Morton Group of Orlando as the contractor and Perkins & Will of Atlanta as the architect. Prosser Inc. is the civil engineer.
In June 2019, Mayo announced it would build the 140,000-square-foot project on the campus.
Punsky said the building size has grown substantially.
Mayo Clinic said it is investing $211 million for the integrated oncology facility support tower and advanced radiation equipment, including proton beam, and $22 million for parking and patient walkways.
Mayo said the project will be near the Mangurian Building, which houses hematology and oncology care, and the Oncology Infusion Center.
A news release said keeping the services close together will best serve Mayo’s cancer patients and further integrate cancer care on the Florida campus.
“This facility will give us the ability to offer our patients the full spectrum of cancer treatment options, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, CAR-T cell therapy (chimeric antigen receptor therapy T cell therapy), surgery, proton beam therapy, gamma knife radiosurgery and traditional radiotherapy,” said Dr. Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, in the 2019 announcement.
He said it would give patients access to proton beam therapy clinical trials offered through Mayo’s National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
Mayo Clinic said the proton beam therapy program uses pencil beam scanning to deliver precise radiotherapy with lower doses of radiation to healthy tissue, “subsequently reducing toxicity and negative side effects in patients.”
Mayo said the targeted therapy “is ideal for people with tumors close to, or in, vital organs.”
Mayo Clinic said it successfully introduced proton beam therapy at its campuses in Rochester, Minnesota, in 2015 and in Phoenix in 2016.
