Korea University Guro Hospital to Build Cancer Hospital, Completion Set for 2029

[Financial News] Korea University Guro Hospital is launching the construction of a future-oriented cancer treatment platform encompassing critical and essential care as well as precision cancer treatment. The hospital announced on the 16th that it will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for Saeam Hospital at 4 p.m. on the 22nd and begin full-scale construction, with completion targeted for the end of 2029.
Sa eam Hospital will have approximately 30,458 square meters of total floor area, with nine basement levels and six above-ground floors. Rather than simply expanding treatment space, the project aims to create a future-oriented cancer treatment platform covering critical and essential care and precision cancer treatment.
The construction is the second phase of a master plan to reorganize the entire hospital structure, which Korea University Guro Hospital has pursued since 2019. Miraegwan, the first phase, was completed in September 2022. Through the construction of Saeam Hospital, the hospital plans to advance its care system in two directions: strengthening a critical and essential care platform centered on specialized centers, and shifting toward a patient-tailored precision cancer treatment paradigm.

The first vision for Saeam Hospital is to strengthen a critical and essential care platform centered on specialized centers. The plan calls for adding 25 intensive care beds and seven operating rooms, while expanding the Regional Emergency Medical Center to nearly twice its current size. This is intended to enhance the hospital’s capacity to provide intensive care for high-risk, critically ill, and emergency patients.
The second vision is a shift toward patient-tailored precision cancer treatment. The hospital plans to consolidate cancer-related testing, consultations, and treatment infrastructure in a larger and more comfortable environment. It will establish an integrated care system linking cancer-specific specialized centers, multidisciplinary care, and precision medicine-based personalized treatment. The Breast Cancer Center, Thyroid Cancer Center, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Center, Respiratory Center, and chemotherapy unit will also be expanded or newly established to strengthen disease-specific expertise and minimize patient movement.

In 2009, when multidisciplinary care was still unfamiliar in Korea, Korea University Guro Hospital introduced the country’s first multidisciplinary care system. It currently operates specialized multidisciplinary teams for breast, lung, colorectal, esophageal, head and neck, pancreatobiliary, liver, stomach, and thymic cancers, helping improve survival rates.
The hospital also provides personalized cancer treatment based on patients’ genetic and immune profiles, using various therapies including targeted and immuno-oncology treatments. It actively participates in clinical trials and research into new cancer therapies. Thanks to these efforts, Korea University Guro Hospital has maintained the top grade in HIRA’s quality assessments for colorectal, stomach, breast, and lung cancer for more than five consecutive years.
Once Saeam Hospital is completed, facilities and functions ranging from testing to consultations and treatment will be concentrated in one location. This is expected to further strengthen an integrated cancer care system linking cancer-specific multidisciplinary care with precision medicine. The hospital also plans to develop a research-clinical precision cancer treatment system by connecting its accumulated research capabilities and clinical trials as a research-oriented hospital with patient care, applying new cancer treatments and diagnostic technologies to actual clinical practice.
Min Byung-Wook, president of Korea University Guro Hospital, said, "The construction of Saeam Hospital is not simply a project to expand the hospital’s size. It is an important turning point that will take the critical and essential care and cancer treatment capabilities we have built up to the next level. We will further strengthen our expertise in multidisciplinary care, personalized treatment, and robotic surgery, while organically linking research and clinical practice to establish a new standard for patient-tailored treatment."
 

[email protected] Medical Specialist Reporter Jeong Myeong-jin Reporter