A long-talked-about Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i in Kaka'ako may break ground in mid-2010, with an opening date in late 2012 or 2013.

The University of Hawai'i yesterday said lease negotiations for a site next to the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kaka'ako have been completed with the Hawai'i Community Development Authority and that it is continuing to talk with Townsend and Company, a private investment firm that is to finance and build the facility.

Supporters of the new facility had hoped to break ground last year, but have been delayed as negotiations continued and a permanent funding stream from cigarette tax revenues and other sources were found for lease payments and operations.

Planners have long hoped for a new $200 million center to build upon its designation as a National Cancer Institute cancer center and continue its work contributing to the care and treatment of cancer patients in the state.

The new facility would allow researchers to move from a smaller space housing the center next to The Queen's Medical Center.

UH President David McClain yesterday told a legislative informational hearing that the university has been negotiating on a lease and financing after the state Legislature gave it a source of funds via an increase in the cigarette tax.

"Assuming negotiations with Townsend come to a successful conclusion, the design phase for a research and clinical trials facility is estimated to be completed by mid-2010, at which time we will proceed into construction," McClain said.

The update on the center came a little more than two months after Dr. Carl Wilhelm-Vogel stepped down as head and Dr. Michele Carbone was named as interim director.

The design of the center, which once included plans for a cancer treatment center, have been changed.

The new plan calls for a "matrix" cancer center model in which scientists and physicians collaborate in conducting clinical cancer research within hospitals.

"The research performed at the center will be translated and applied to diagnosis and treatment at existing hospital facilities throughout the state by doctors located at those facilities," Carbone said. That concept has won support from Queen's, which opened a $6 million cancer treatment center of its own in October 2007.

Other hospitals supporting the matrix model include Kuakini Medical Center, and four hospitals operated by Hawai'i Pacific Health.