As Laura Grant learned firsthand, cancer patients face a host of difficulties as they undergo treatment — fear of the unknown, disability, financial issues and more.

One might not expect that the surroundings in which one is treated would make an impression on a patient undergoing the battle of their life, but Grant recalls a tiny detail from her days of treatment that annoyed her to the point of speaking up about it.

“There’s this one place that I go [for treatment] that they had this piece of masking tape hanging for a year,” said Grant, laughing as she looked up at decorative plastic paneling in a radiology oncology treatment room Tuesday morning. “When I came in the second time, I said, ‘You’ve got to take the masking tape down because I sat here for an hour last time, and I can’t stand it.’”

Grant is a survivor of ocular melanoma, a type of cancer that develops in the eye. She occasionally needs to go in to be scanned to ensure that the cancer has not redeveloped but is otherwise healthy.

Grant is the executive director of strategic implementation and one of the key players in what the nonprofit calls “activating” the City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center in Irvine, which was unveiled to the public Wednesday.

Officials confirmed the center will not serve patients until late August. The Irvine center is the fifth of the nonprofit’s regional clinics in Orange County and the second in the city. Two others are in Newport Beach and one is in Huntington Beach.

The four-story building is just one segment of a $1-billion expansion for City of Hope into Orange County. The organization also broke ground Wednesday on a hospital, slated for completion in 2025, that will be connected to the outpatient center.

The center is named after the Lennar Foundation, which donated about $50 million to City of Hope Orange County in April 2021.

The project is four years in the making. Officials said plans for the cancer treatment campus conceptualized in 2017 and construction began in September 2020.

“It was clear that for Orange County, we had this big void and we had 4,000 patients in Orange County driving up to Duarte [where City of Hope is headquartered],” said Grant, herself a Laguna Beach resident. “It’s our California thing where without traffic it’s 40 minutes, but on a daily average it’s an hour and a half. So, imagine having chemo, feeling sick as a dog and getting in a car and going bumper-to-bumper on the 210, the 57 to the 5.

“So, it came up as ‘We’ll do an outpatient center,’ and it sounded kind of small. And then it would be a clinic and then, all of the sudden, it just kept growing once we started doing an assessment of the needs. It’s 190,000 square feet — a very complex outpatient center that I joke is everything but a hospital.”

City of Hope spokeswoman Lisa O’Neill Hill said more than 7,400 patients were treated at the four existing centers in the last year. Officials estimate that about 20% of Orange County cancer patients have had to travel out of the area to seek advanced care.

Throughout its four floors, cancer patients can seek diagnoses, treatment and surgeries, though Grant noted the building doesn’t officially have a fourth floor. The floors are labeled one, two, three and five. Grant explained they skipped the number four to be conscious of cultural beliefs. The number four is considered unlucky in some Asian cultures because it sounds like the word for death.

Included in the facilities are a pharmacy, cafeteria, several sitting rooms for families and the Hope Boutique, where patients can have their hair cut off by a cosmetologist and try on wigs and head coverings, as well as bras, with the assistance of trained cancer survivors.

“This extraordinary cadre of preeminent cancer physician-scientists changes the Orange County landscape,” said Dr. Edward Kim, City of Hope’s physician in chief, in a statement.

“Our physician roster comprises many of the best minds in the world for preventing, treating and curing cancer,” Kim said. “With their highly specialized expertise, distinguished history of research breakthroughs and compassionate approach, this team will transform our ability to address cancer for generations.”

City of Hope officials said that at every step of its development they sought input from patients, their families and medical professionals.

Leaning on her experiences, Grant, too, weighed in on what she thought would make the center ideal. One of her priorities was keeping the environment from looking and feeling too sterile or clinical for patients.

“You’re going to see artwork all over the place,” said Grant, adding that there are three rotating art galleries throughout the facility that have been donated by Orange County artists. “We talked to patients and families. They are here a lot — every day or every other day — and they walk the halls. [The galleries] will keep changing and they’ll be able to come and go, ‘Oh, what’s up now?’”

One of her personal highlights is the art featured in the ceiling of the radiology oncology treatment rooms. Plastic panels are decorated with images of fish or butterflies.

“When you’re in this super big, impressive, somewhat scary [radiotherapy machine] and it’s rotating around you, you can close your eyes and hold your breath or you can go and tell yourself a story while you’re looking at this art,” said Grant. “There’s music playing; someone’s watching and talking to you the whole time, but it just added a little bit of softness to it.”

About 15 consultation rooms are scattered throughout the floors to allow patients and families to gather with their care team. Grant said she once was given bad news in the middle of a hallway and didn’t want to have that happen to any patients possibly hearing the worst news of their life.

“Laura’s unique perspective as a cancer survivor and her commitment to the needs of our patients have helped ensure our cancer center is not only the most advanced cancer center in Orange County but is also a place of hope and healing for everyone who walks through our doors,” said Annette Walker, president of City of Hope Orange County.

“I’m so grateful Laura answered the call to join the Orange County team and for her incredible accomplishments in helping us deliver on our promise to the people of Orange County,” Walker said. “With the opening of City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, we are truly changing cancer care for our family, friends and neighbors.”

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Lilly Nguyen covers Newport Beach for the Daily Pilot. Before joining the Pilot, she worked for the Orange County Register as a freelance reporter and general assignment intern. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism at Cal State Long Beach. (714) 966-4623.