Naoto T Ueno, Director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, shared a post on X:
“What an accomplishment. We celebrated the grand opening of the Hoʻōla Early Phase Clinical Research Center, with a beautiful blessing ceremony – marked by oli, the untying of the lei, and the rain, which in Hawaiʻi is often received as a blessing.
We brought rainforest water to bless the Hoʻōla signage at the center’s entrance, symbolizing hope, healing, and the promise that everyone who enters this place will feel welcomed into a new chapter of cancer care.
I congratulate and thank everyone who helped make this possible. This achievement reflects years of vision, persistence, partnership, and commitment from our faculty, staff, clinical teams, community partners, supporters, and the people of Hawaiʻi.
Aloha to our distinguished guests – federal, state, and UH leaders, elected officials, members of the Hawaiʻi Cancer Consortium, healthcare partners, generous donors and supporters, and our UH Cancer Center faculty, staff, students, community partners, and friends. Mahalo nui loa for your support.
We are now home to the only early-phase clinical research center in the middle of the Pacific. We serve one of the most diverse populations in the United States, and we are uniquely positioned to become a bridge between North America and Asia – bringing innovative cancer treatments closer to the communities that need them.
Hoʻōla means to heal, to save, and to give life. That meaning is now carried into the entrance of this center, into every clinical trial we open, and into every patient we serve. Our ultimate goal is simple but powerful: no one in Hawaiʻi should have to leave home and travel to the continent to receive the cancer care they need.
This is more than the opening of a facility. It is the beginning of a promise – to bring hope, access, innovation, and healing to Hawaiʻi and across the Pacific.”
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