Copyright Los Angeles Times
After more than three years of construction, Orange County’s only cancer specialty hospital is just about ready to open its doors. It feels more like a five-star hotel, cancer survivor Gabby Zappia proclaimed Thursday, after taking a tour of City of Hope Orange County’s new cancer hospital in Irvine. “It’s definitely an emotional experience to walk through these doors,” the Mission Viejo resident said. “I know that a lot of healing is going to happen inside this building.” Zappia, the mother of three young children, never thought cancer would strike her in her 30s. Last December, however, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 36. Three surgeries and 15 rounds of chemotherapy later, she got to ring the bell in September after doctors found no evidence of cancer. “It’s been a wild year,” Zappia said. “I feel like 2025 didn’t even happen.” City of Hope Orange County plans to begin seeing patients in its new cancer hospital on Dec. 1. The hospital is connected to the adjacent Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, which opened in 2022. The new hospital, cancer center and five regional clinics together represent a $1.5 billion investment over the last five years. City of Hope Orange County opened a standalone outpatient facility in Newport Beach in January 2020. Since then, the nonprofit organization has served more than 40,000 patients, according to City of Hope Orange County President Annette Walker. “From having nothing here in 2020 to having a network of all of this, in five years, it is pretty awesome,” Walker said Thursday. “I always say, God wanted City of Hope in Orange County, because there’s no way all of that could have reasonably gotten done in that time frame. It’s been an amazing, exhilarating opportunity.” City of Hope invited media and five generations of cancer survivors — from Gen Z (born 1997-2012) to the Silent Generation (1928-1945) — to participate in Thursday’s tour of the six-story hospital. Choices of color and design were made intentionally, to elevate the patient experience. Walker said. For example, each patient room has a piece of art donated by an Orange County artist. Feng shui design principles were used in building the 174,000-square-foot hospital, Walker added. It has no fourth floor, because that number is seen as unlucky in some Asian cultures. Kurt LeBrun of Mission Viejo, 65, took the tour along with other survivors. LeBrun, a multiple myeloma survivor, had two stem cell transplants done at City of Hope’s Duarte campus. He comes to the Lennar Center every four weeks for continued maintenance treatment, getting a shot to start the chemotherapy before taking chemo pills for 21 days. LeBrun appreciated touches like the balcony on each floor, where patients and their families can go to get fresh air, and a view of the Orange County skyline. There are also two patient family suites on the sixth floor. “When you’re comfortable and your family is comfortable, and you don’t have to worry about that, it certainly helps the healing process,” he said. “The details that they put into this are going to help a lot of people. They won’t necessarily realize it, because they’re dealing with their cancer. They’re not going to think, ‘Oh, this chair is comfortable or the color of this chair is great.’ But it will help them subconsciously, I would think.” The new facility has 73 beds and four operating room suites and offers radiology, pharmacy and laboratory services. On the fifth floor is the Wetterau Family Spiritual Care Center, where patients can use technology to immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of each of the world’s five largest faith traditions. The hospital on City of Hope’s academic campus in Irvine will work together with the existing Duarte location, officials said, providing two academic campuses within 50 miles of each other to give patients more options. Dr. Edward Kim, City of Hope Orange County’s physician-in-chief, said he hired an additional 50 physicians to support the cancer hospital. City of Hope also recruited more than 700 cancer experts, including registered nurses, pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and more. “This is the largest assembly of cancer experts under one roof in Orange County,” Kim said. “We are all aligned with the mission that we need to take care of patients, we need to help them navigate and beat their disease. We’re all excited to do so. My standard of hiring anybody is, would I send my mother to them? And I love my mother very much. That is the final criteria I use when we hire somebody.” The hospital will also provide access to clinical trials, with patients benefiting from CAR-T cell therapy and transplants as complex surgeries are performed. Kommah McDowell of Vista, a 49-year-old breast cancer survivor, got emotional as she described her feelings about the new facility. “The intentionality that has been put into this facility is amazing, and it’s going to be so appreciated by every patient,” she said to Walker. “You cared enough to pay attention to details, and the details matter. It’s not a sterile environment. You don’t feel like you’re in a hospital, you feel like you’re in a comfortable space.”
