A cornerstone-laying ceremony was held at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center – Ichilov Hospital on Sunday for the Adelson National Center for Advanced Cancer Therapy.
Dr. Miriam Adelson took part in the ceremony, as did CEO of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center professor Ronni Gamzu. At the construction site, where an older structure once stood, Adelson said, “This is where I began my residency as a physician at Ichilov.”
In January, on the one-year anniversary of her husband Sheldon Adelson’s death, the family of the businessman and philanthropist announced a substantial donation to the Israeli health system. Prior to his death, Adelson ordered the donation of $40 million for the establishment of the cancer treatment center.
At 43,000 square feet and 20 stories tall, the Adelson National Center for Advanced Cancer Therapy will be constructed in two stages over a five-year period in the medical center’s southwest wing, situated on the intersection between Tel Aviv’s Weizmann and Dafna streets. The tower will also be directly connected to a light-rail tunnel currently under construction in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area that will serve the thousands of daily visitors to the medical complex each day. The tower will include basement parking floors, an underground wing for proton therapy, an oncology institute, as well as floors for inpatient units, clinics and other institutes. The introduction of proton therapy treatment to Israel is big news for children and young people as up until now, patients would need to travel overseas to receive such treatment. At the national proton therapy institute, advanced proton radiation will be used for the treatment of cancer. Similar to other advanced radiotherapy technologies, proton therapy works through the precise transfer of high-energy radiation to a tumor, damaging cancer cells’ DNA and resulting in the cells’ destruction, without damaging surrounding tissue and with reduced side effects.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
