Print edition: 
The Center for Breast Cancer Survivorship is moving ahead and could be open by the end of the year at Cypress Medical Park, near 29th Street North and Webb Road.
The center, in the works for more than a year, will help speed a return to normal life for those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, addressing issues such as weight gain, bone health and relationships, said Judy Johnston, its program director.
It won't provide traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation.
The center will be run by the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita in partnership with the Mid-Kansas Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The Mid-Kansas Affiliate, which has provided some start-up money, just awarded a one-time $60,000 grant to help pay for a patient navigator at the center.
"As a patient, you might have five different people that you're seeing," including an oncologist, surgeon and primary care doctor, said Christina Osbourn, executive director of the affiliate. "A patient navigator can help tie all that together" as well as find resources and fill out paperwork.
Johnston said the patient navigator also will work to create a database to help patients in rural Kansas.
Osbourn said the Mid-Kansas Affiliate does a community needs assessment every two years, and a survivors center has been a need for several years.
The affiliate put out a request for applications after the most recent assessment, and the medical school responded.
"It seems like it's going to be a great fit," Osbourn said.
Johnston said the center will be staffed by people from the medical school and others. It will include clinicians as well as a dietitian and professionals to help with individual and group counseling.
At this year's Race for the Cure, Johnston asked people to sign up if they wanted information about the center's opening — and 115 did. She has had interest from people in other parts of the state as well.
Though the Komen affiliate helped with start-up funding, Johnston said the center eventually will need to be self-sustaining. Many of its services can be billed to insurance, she said.
