This could be the start of something big.

Of course, the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i already has a long history, organized under the aegis of the University of Hawai'i.

Beginning as a part of the UH Pacific Biomedical Research Center, a grant from the National Cancer Institute matched local funds and enabled the construction of its first home on Lauhala Street downtown.

Now its administration is eyeing a 2008 date to break ground on a $200 million research and treatment center in Kaka'ako. Center officials consider the expansion a worthy investment needed to attract more national research money and improve cancer care with the addition of an outpatient cancer treatment center.

Statistics would seem to suggest that they're right. Experts forecast that by 2030, this state will tally 10,000 new cancer cases each year, up from the current annual count of 6,000 — an already startling number.

There are high rates of cancer among Native Hawaiians and many other groups within Hawai'i's diverse population. Many can't possibly afford trips to Mainland centers to reap the benefits of vanguard treatments under development there. And the center could mean more opportunities to participate in clinical trials of new drugs and treatments here at home.

Given Hawai'i's geographic isolation, and our connections throughout the Pacific basin, creating new health resources locally would be an important, progressive step.

The cancer center already collaborates, in sponsoring symposia and in other ways, with the John A. Burns School of Medicine. As it grows into an institution that combines research with clinical treatments and with its own tenured faculty, a closer relationship with the medical school would make sense.

However, university administrators who already are contemplating that relationship, must take care to make the most of the potential synergies without causing one establishment to become a drain on the other. Fundraising efforts should be conducted separately, but with comparable vigor, to find the private-sector support that can help sustain both educational institutions and missions.

As a state in great need of a new generation of healthcare providers, and of greater self-sufficiency overall, we should give high priority to the development of these two components of its fledgling life sciences industry. They can become economic drivers as well as vital resources for the health of Hawai'i's people.