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GREENSBORO — Moses Cone Health System is seeking permission from the state to expand its Regional Cancer Center at Greensboro's Wesley Long Hospital.

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The expansion would consist of a two-story, 20,000-square-foot addition and would allow renovation of 18,000 square feet of existing space.

The project would cost roughly $15 million and would be complete by April 2010.

Jim Whiting, vice president of the Regional Cancer Center, was away from his office Monday as he spoke with the News & Record and could not say whether the project would involve more beds or more patient visits.

But he did say it would provide more space for the services the center currently provides.

He said the center receives 120 to 140 patients a day for radiation oncology and another 400 or so each day for various forms of medical oncology treatment — to see physicians, receive chemotherapy or have lab testing done.

Whiting said hospital officials had expected that the existing center, which opened in 2002, would not need to be expanded for 10 years. But several parts of the operation have become cramped for space, he said, including the chemotherapy area and the lab.

The expansion, he said, also would allow the health system to consolidate some services related to cancer treatment, such as social services, the chaplaincy and a genetics program, in one location.

And it would allow the center to set up a clinic especially for breast-cancer patients, whose visits make up about 25 percent of all patient visits to the center.

The Certificate of Need Section of the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation must decide whether to grant a certificate of need for the project, thus approving it.

A hearing on Moses Cone's application has been scheduled for July 18 in Kernersville.

Project analyst Gene DePorter of the state Certificate of Need Section said that unless anything unexpected surfaces at the hearing or in written comments, his agency likely would approve the application by late September and issue the certificate of need by about Oct. 15.

Construction likely would begin within six months of that approval, Whiting said, and would not affect services while it was going on.

The addition would not involve adding new services immediately, Whiting said.

"We're doing it for consolidation and because we need more capacity," he said. "It's very crowded right now and not the kind of atmosphere in which you'd want — or patients want — to be served.

"Cancer is a very personal disease. … It involves your family. It involves a lot of support people.

"And we need to provide a quality environment in which (patients) can be active participants in their care."

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lex.alexander@news-record.com