OKLAHOMA CITY — The OU Cancer Institute celebrated the midpoint of construction on its new home Monday afternoon at the Health Sciences Center.

The institute was started in 2002 and began an initiative to construct its own building in 2006, according to its Web site. The new building will combine research, education and patient care and support under one roof starting in November 2010.

“The important thing is what we have done to impact the lives of other people and to change the quality of life for those who live with us ... That’s what we celebrate today,” OU President David Boren said. “We celebrate the fact that this OU Cancer Institute is an institute that will change the lives of people, and it is an institute that love and concern for others built.”

Much of the funding for the building came from Proposition 713, which raised taxes on tobacco products, said Christy Everest, co-chairwoman of the fundraising campaign and chairwoman and CEO of Oklahoma Publishing Company. Her job is to raise private funds to help with the rest of the construction.

The new building will be a seven-story facility with each level dedicated to separate centers, such as clinics on the second floor and treatment and trial centers on the third floor, according to the program given out at today’s event. As of now, the fourth and fifth floors are left empty for future expansion, should they need it.

High-quality patient care is a major concern for the institute. Once the institute moves into its new building, the hope is that patients will be able to receive all elements of their treatment and see all of their doctors in one place, according to the institute’s Web site.

Jim Edwards, a pancreatic cancer survivor of almost five years, said he went to the institute for his surgery, chemotherapy and other treatments. Edwards now leads a pancreatic cancer support group.

“[I am] now 99 percent cured of this dreaded disease,” Edwards said. “We hope we never have to use this new state-of-the art facility, but we know that if we do, we will receive the same great care we did in the past. [Patients] will receive the very best care possible anywhere in the world.”

The institute places a large focus on researching the nature of cancer and the latest and best cancer-fighting practices.

“From a societal standpoint, [cancer] is public enemy number one,” said Dr. Robert Mannel, director of the institute. “[High-quality care alone] is not good enough because still a large percentage of patients will succumb to their disease. The way to change that is through research and education.”

Mannel also said the institute’s new building will allow researchers and doctors to move knowledge from the labs to the bedsides of the patients, putting their research into practice to best help the needs of patients.

After the ceremony, speakers and guests took a tour of the construction site. Guides led tours around the building, explaining what parts of the institute will look like and what their functions will be. Computerized images of what the building would look like were placed around the building to give visualizations.