Game changer': Cancer center opens at Park City Hospital

PARK CITY \u2014 Jim Becker traveled two hours each way, at least, five days a week while receiving cancer treatment at Intermountain Medical Center \u2014 a total of 3,500 miles, all while not feeling well."It's a very long day, an uncomfortable day, and all you want to do is get home," the Midway native said about his chemotherapy days each week, which would be at least 12 hours long.A cancer center built as an expansion of the Park City Hospital opened with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday and began seeing its first patients on Friday. It increased the hospital's infusion bays from four to 18, added the technology needed for radiation and added rooms for other services, allowing comprehensive cancer care for patients in Summit and Wasatch County, the Uintah Basin and surrounding states.Cancer patients like Becker in the Wasatch Back and Uintah Basin now have another option, one that he said would have reduced his drive from two hours to 20 minutes, allowing him to take his breaks back at his home and would have taken a lot of stress out of the long weeks."I feel good that this place is here. I hope I personally never need it, but for the people that need it here locally, it will be a huge benefit for them," he said.'Game changer'Becker, 66, would spend five and a half hours in a chair receiving chemotherapy, and he would also have other appointments on the same day, including radiation \u2014 often with hours between and without the time to travel home; he would need to spend that time walking through Costco or sitting in a library or waiting room."All you want to do is go home, get in a dark, cool room, lay down in a fetal position and not move and not hear sounds," he said. Jim Becker, from Midway, talks about driving to Salt Lake County for his cancer care each day ahead of a ribbon-cutting for the Park City Cancer Center on Thursday. (Photo: Emily Ashcraft, KSL) Clarke Low, a medical oncologist at the Park City Hospital, said cancer is never convenient but long drives can make it less convenient."Nobody deserves to be diagnosed with cancer, but everybody diagnosed with cancer deserves to receive world-class care close to home," he said.According to Low, the new facilities are the "best of the best" and allow him and the rest of the team not just to provide medical care, but to treat all of the patients' needs.Tawnya Bowles, a surgical oncologist with Intermountain Health, said the radiation therapy that is now availabl