City of Hope’s cancer specialty hospital opens doors to first patients in Irvine

When Costa Mesa-based philanthropist Frank Di Bella, 80, was diagnosed with metastatic bladder cancer in 2011, he was given a prognosis from a local hospital of just two to three months to live.

Di Bella turned to City of Hope in Duarte for a second opinion.

Over a decade later, Di Bella credits City of Hope with life-saving treatment. And on Monday morning, Di Bella became the first patient to receive care at City of Hope’s new cancer specialty hospital in Irvine.

Di Bella was seen in the hospital’s evaluation and treatment center, which is now open to patients for around-the-clock care.

Hundreds of City of Hope’s employees, equipped with enthusiastic cheers and pompoms, gathered Monday morning to welcome Di Bella in and celebrate the hospital’s opening just three years after the not-for-profit cancer research and treatment center opened its outpatient center next door, which marked its expansion into Orange County.

“We knew that when we came, we were filling a unique community need,” City of Hope Orange County President Annette Walker said of the new cancer-specialty hospital. “For example, in 2018, 20% of our patients who got diagnosed with cancer in Orange County felt the need to leave Orange County to get the level of care they wanted.”

The new hospital opening at 1000 Fivepoint spares patients in this region a commute to Duarte, the site of City of Hope’s founding campus.

The six-story Irvine hospital brings on board 73 beds, a staff of more than 700, cancer-focused clinical trials and vast research opportunities for emerging medical professionals, officials said.

The 174,000-square-foot hospital was built with Orange County’s diverse identity in mind, its planners said. Elements of feng shui are represented throughout; there is no fourth floor, as to avoid the number associated with death in many Asian cultures; and the building comes with its own healing space that uses immersive technology to transport patients to several sacred and natural places for prayer or finding peace of mind.

City of Hope’s new hospital is seven years in the making, first imagined in 2018 when City of Hope accepted an invitation from FivePoint to come to the county. That invitation spurred a $1.5 billion investment by City of Hope and its donors.

The first component of that investment — the Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, an outpatient facility — opened in 2022. It has also opened smaller clinics in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Irvine. The new cancer specialty hospital, which now connects to the outpatient facility, marks the completion of that seven-year plan.