Mayo Clinic received a $100 million multiyear commitment from the Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation to nearly double appointment access at the system's proton beam facility in Rochester, Minn.
Mayo Clinic first began offering proton beam therapy in 2015 with construction of its Jacobson Building in Rochester. Since, the program has routinely approached its appointment capacity of 1,200 patients per year.
The $100 million gift will fund expansion of the Rochester facility with the addition of a new facility: the Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Building. Mayo expects to treat 900 additional patients per year with the expansion to meet the site's estimated demand of 2,000 patients who will need proton beam therapy each year by 2025.
The late Fred and Katherine Andersen were longtime Mayo Clinic benefactors through their personal philanthropy and charitable foundation. The foundation has previously gifted Mayo Clinic to create or support the Fred C. Andersen Professorship, the Katherine B. Andersen Professorship, capital needs, women's cancers and translational cancer research.
"This gift marks a significant milestone in Mayo Clinic's decades-long relationship with Fred and Katherine Andersen and the foundation that executes on their vision for healthy, strong communities," Mayo Clinic President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia, MD, said in an Oct. 10 news release.