2 new cancer treatment centers are coming to SLO County. Here’s where and when
Two new state-of-the-art cancer centers are coming soon to San Luis Obispo County.
The cities of San Luis Obispo and Atascadero will each become host to an oncology treatment center, which will operate separately under different overseeing entities.
Dignity Health will provide joint oncology services at a new cancer center in San Luis Obispo.
In Atascadero, UCLA Health will open up a cancer treatment center on El Camino Real.
The Dignity Health center in SLO will open by spring 2026, and the UCLA center in Atascadero will be accepting patients by this summer.
UCLA to open cancer treatment center in Atascadero
Located at 1930 El Camino Real in Atascadero, the new UCLA Health oncology treatment center will be the 20th UCLA Health center in the state, and the only cancer treatment center in the North County, filling a significant local gap in cancer care.
The new North County care center was pioneered by UCLA Health oncologists Dr. Joseph Cleveland and Dr. Brian DiCarlo, who currently see patients at the UCLA Health cancer care center in San Luis Obispo, which opened in March 2019.
With no opportunity for them to get treatment closer to home, about half of the patients seen at the SLO center come down from the North County, DiCarlo said.
Offering a comprehensive cancer care center in Atascadero means North County patients will no longer have to commute over the Grade to receive the life-saving care they need.
Once the Atascadero care center opens, Dr. Cleveland and Dr. DiCarlo will split their time between the two centers to be able to keep their current patients and take on new ones, in both locations.
“If you get a cancer diagnosis, you want to know you have access to the best things,” DiCarlo said. “Really, our goal here is to improve access to the best cancer treatments possible.”
When the SLO center opened six years ago, it brought new primary care physicians to SLO County with it. Cleveland hopes the same will happen in Atascadero.
“Our goal is really to make SLO County being a medically underserved population a thing of the past,” Dr. DiCarlo said. “It’s hard to get primary care appointments in a timely fashion, and it’s hard to get a new specialist. I‘m hoping that this will improve access to care.”
To start, there will be two doctors — Cleveland and DiCarlo who will split their time — and a nurse practitioner on site. Eventually they hope to bring on a third physician, a position for which they are actively hiring now.
The approximately 7,000-square-foot space will be entirely dedicated to hematology and medical oncology care including pill therapy, immunotherapy and chemotherapy, with room for around 15 to 17 infusion chairs, DiCarlo said.
The center will also host a clinical trials program, offering cutting-edge treatments and medications right here in SLO County, DiCarlo said.
“We’re bringing pretty world-class care — like an academic medical center — to a place that traditionally doesn’t have that access,” Dr. Cleveland said. “Being able to offer them the same type of care that we can offer to people in a big city is pretty incredible.”
A new Simms Mann integrative oncology resource center will offer mental health and care-giving support to patients on-site and online, including counseling, group therapy and other resources to support cancer patients through their treatment and recovery.
As for other services that are important for cancer care, UCLA Health will work with its existing community partners for radiation oncology in Templeton and the nearby Adventist Health Twin Cities hospital for surgery and radiation services, DiCarlo said.
The Atascadero center will be open by the end of July.
The ultimate goal is to build a UCLA “cancer campus” at the SLO location, complete with specialists and surgeons to offer comprehensive treatment, with the Atascadero center acting as a North County outpost.
New joint cancer care center set to open in SLO next year
Located at 4051 Broad St., Dignity Health’s French Hospital Medical Center, Marian Regional Medical Center and Pacific Central Coast Health Centers will unite their existing oncology services at a state-of-the-art joint cancer center in San Luis Obispo.
Currently, oncology infusions, imaging and mental health resources services are distributed in multiple different locations across town.
From diagnosis to remission, the new care center will provide the only location in SLO County where all treatment services will be available under one roof, offering a simpler, streamlined team-based care approach, President and CEO of French Hospital Medical Center Sue Andersen told The Tribune.
“We’re bringing everything into one building,” Andersen said. “There’s just no center that has everything in one location.”
The center will be housed inside an existing two-story building at the corner of Tank Farm Road and Broad Street.
Patients will have on-site access to services and programs such as medical oncology, hematology, urology, infusions, diagnostic imaging, radiation oncology and an ambulatory surgery center, she said.
There will be 22 infusion chairs and an exam room that can also be used for chemotherapy, Andersen said. There will be dozens of physicians working out of the building at any given time, including at least four oncologists, two to three radiation oncologists and surgeons, Andersen said.
The center will exclusively provide outpatient care, with no overnight facilities on-site, Andersen said.
Additionally, the center will feature the Hearst Cancer Resource Center, a unique support resource in San Luis Obispo County dedicated to helping cancer patients and their families through recovery.
The center will offer everything from emotional and mental health support classes to setting up things like transportation to and from treatment, Andersen said. The Hearst center can even help provide wigs to patients losing their hair due to chemotherapy treatments.
“It’s really kind of everything somebody would need for support as they’re going through their cancer journey,” Andersen said.
Construction on the internal components of the 58,650-square-foot space is scheduled to begin in the spring and is expected to finish in early 2026, Andersen said.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
