Kyung Hee University Medical Center (KHMC) has opened Humanitas, a cancer center which provides integrated treatment covering all areas of clinical treatment. It is the first hospital of the kind opened in Korea.

KHMC introduced Humanitas cancer center holding a news conference at the center’s seminar room.

The cancer hospital will open to the public on Monday and will provide integrated treatments including Western, Oriental and dental medicine.

KHMC announced its plans on the Humanitas, Kyung Hee University Cancer Center, in a news press conference at the center’s seminar room, on Friday.

“Providing medical, oriental and dental integrated treatment to fight cancer presents a new paradigm for medical treatment which only Kyung Hee University Medical Center can initiate,” said Lim Young-jin, director-general of KHMC. “It is often easier to think of a cancer hospital as a hospital with the state-of-the-art equipment. Humanitas aims to move beyond that; it will be a beautiful cancer hospital which guides the patients’ lives.

The hospital is built on about 5,940 square meters of land and has two basement floors and seven floors above the ground. Its major facilities include the first-time visiting center, oriental immune cancer center and dental clinic center. There will be 70 doctors, 36 oriental doctors and 20 dentists, with 40 percent of them exclusively working for the cancer hospital.

The hospital will work in cooperation with the Royal Marsden Hospital in the United Kingdom, the world’s first cancer hospital, through video-based medical examinations and clinical trials.

Regarding the conflicts expected to happen in the course of Western and oriental medical treatments, the hospital said that it would consider the needs of the patient as a top priority.

“Patients do not distinguish between oriental treatment or medical treatment. What we are trying to do is to meet the needs of the patients, not the medical staff, and provide supportive treatment regardless of the field. Meeting the patients’ needs will be our top priority,” said Lee Joon-hee, director of Humanitas, Kyung Hee University Cancer Center.

“I am aware of the doubts on the medical, oriental and dental integrated treatments,” Lee said. “It may be new for a cancer hospital, but it is not the first time that KHMC provides such integrated treatments. What we have been doing so far is going to bloom in the cancer hospital.”

Lee also disclosed that the hospital is developing and applying cutting-edge modern oriental medicine treatments.

“I am also aware that there are many doubts regarding cancer treatment through oriental medicine. But oriental medicine continues to improve,” he said. “We do not practice oriental medicine stagnated for hundreds or thousand years. We are continuously carrying out basic and clinical researches on cancer treatment and aim to provide cancer treatment that combines the latest oriental medicine therapy.”

Later in the day, KHMC held the opening ceremony for Humanitas, Kyung Hee University Cancer Center at the center and announced its mission -- Life beyond Cancer.

minju9minju@docdocdoc.co.kr

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