Construction begins on Carilion Taubman Cancer Center

Of the donors, health professionals and area leaders who turned out for Wednesday’s groundbreaking for the Carilion Taubman Cancer Center, Orion Moses, age 9, commanded the most attention. 

Doctors diagnosed Moses, who lives in Elliston, with leukemia at age 5. After enduring three and a half years of chemotherapy, he is now cancer free. 

“I think that the people at Carilion and the clinic are very kind,” he told the crowd who gathered under a tent on the Virginia Tech Carilion Health Sciences and Technology Campus in Roanoke on Wednesday. “They took really good care of me … I am really glad they get this new building. I know it will help other patients fight and win.”

Carilion has raised $74 million toward its $100 million fundraising goal for the cancer center set to be completed in 2027, Nancy Howell Agee, Carilion’s CEO emeritus, announced Wednesday. 

Former Advance Auto Parts CEO Nicholas Taubman, a past U.S. ambassador to Romania, and his wife, Jenny, gave $25 million to the project, which will bear their name. 

Carilion employees raised an additional $1 million for the building, following in the footsteps of Agee, who, along with her husband, Steve, kicked off fundraising for the effort with a $1 million gift in 2019. 

As Agee showed off a rendering of the facility to Wednesday’s attendees, she noted her brain doesn’t work in feet or yards. 

“People say to me, ‘How big is it going to be?’ I say, ‘Well, big enough,’” said Agee, who was succeeded by Steve Arner as president and CEO of Carilion Clinic at the beginning of October. 

Big enough, it turns out, is a six-story building. 

HDR, an employee-owned design firm with headquarters in Nebraska, worked with Carilion oncology teams to design the 257,000-square-foot building, which Agee described as “innovative” and “easy for patients to access.” The facility, she added, will provide “a beautiful environment for collaboration, hope and healing.” 

An illuminated staircase, visible from I-581, will be lit up in different colors to signify different types of cancers.  

“For instance, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and our beacon, if it was here today, would be shining pink,” Agee explained.

Currently, Carilion treats about 3,500 patients for different forms of cancer each year, according to the health system. 

The Carilion Taubman Cancer Center will replace a 41-year-old building on South Jefferson Street. Blue Ridge Cancer Care, which partners with Carilion to provide medical and radiation oncology services at the existing facility, will continue to provide care in the new facility. 

“Beautiful buildings are important, but it’s what each of you do, who work in this building, that makes all the difference,” Agee said. 

The goal, Agee said, is for the new cancer center to be named a National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Center, a designation for facilities that “meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary, state-of-the-art research focused on developing new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.”

The new facility should allow for more patients to be treated. Carilion’s oncology program will expand to include new services, including nurse navigators who will work to shorten the time between a patient’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The center will also bring advanced technology, clinical trials and medical practitioners of different disciplines to a single location, according to the health system.

Agee noted that Virginia Tech is deepening its commitment to cancer research. “Together, we’re advancing care and research, while also driving important economic development throughout our region and the Commonwealth,” she said. 

Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt, was among the attendees at Wednesday’s service. 

“It’s a great day in the Valley,” said Austin, who also sits on the Carilion Clinic Board of Directors. When Austin was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2018, he received treatment through Carilion Clinic, the University of Virginia and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. 

From his experience, Austin said he saw firsthand that Carilion and Blue Ridge Cancer Care have professionals with the skills to fight cancer. “We just need the proper facility to do it in,” he said.