Chris Sutton lives in Lyon County, Kentucky, and for the past several years, getting treated for an extremely rare form of melanoma has meant an eight-hour round-trip drive to Louisville. UofL Health leaders cut the ribbon Thursday on a new facility in Hillview designed to spare patients like him that grind, with the Brown Cancer Center set to open in Bullitt County on September 14.
Sutton, who was diagnosed with his rare melanoma in 2023, has made countless trips to UofL Health's Brown Cancer Center in Louisville for treatment, describing the journey as a 400-mile round trip, according to WLKY. He said the new Bullitt County center is a first step that will save lives, a sentiment that reflects what health officials describe as a widespread barrier facing rural Kentuckians seeking cancer treatment.
The new two-story facility spans 26,440 square feet in Hillview and includes 16 private infusion and exam rooms, an oncology pharmacy, and a patient resource center. That resource center will also house UofL's Center for Rural Cancer Education and Research and will provide free wigs to patients undergoing treatment, per the station's report.
A Phased Rollout Starting With Three Cancer Types
When the doors open next month, the center will begin treating lung, melanoma, and gynecologic cancers. UofL Health plans to expand services to treat all tumor types by November, with blood cancer treatment slated to follow in January 2027, according to the same account.
The rollout matters because Kentucky has the highest rate of cancer deaths in the nation, and Kentuckians receive roughly 30,000 cancer diagnoses every year, WLKY reports. Those figures track with broader state data: UofL Health reported in May 2024 that the state's cancer mortality rate stood at 182.8 deaths per 100,000 people, driving nearly 10,000 cancer deaths annually, according to UofL News.
Funding Tied to a Broader Rural Health Push
The $25 million project was funded through a Kentucky General Assembly appropriation, building on UofL Health's expansion along the I-65 corridor. That expansion began with the March 2024 opening of UofL Health South Hospital, a $78 million acute care facility with 40 inpatient beds and a 10-bed ICU that gave Bullitt County its first inpatient hospital, according to background compiled by Wikipedia.
Gerry Bradley said the community investment demonstrates dedication and confidence in efforts to end cancer, per WLKY's report. The Bullitt County Chamber of Commerce has similarly framed the facility as more than a treatment site, noting that its Center for Rural Cancer Education and Research will train healthcare workers from medically underserved communities who can then return home to run targeted screening and prevention programs, according to a Bullitt County Chamber of Commerce post.
Kentucky's Outsized Cancer Burden
Kentucky's cancer crisis extends beyond mortality figures. The state recorded the highest age-adjusted new cancer incidence rate in the nation in 2022, at 512.0 cases per 100,000 people, 15.8% above the national average, according to USAFacts. Male lung cancer incidence in Kentucky reaches 96 per 100,000 men, the highest rate in the country and up to four times higher than in states like Utah, per the American Cancer Society's 2026 report — a disparity that helps explain why lung cancer is among the first tumor types the new Bullitt County center will treat.
Appalachian Kentucky in particular has suffered elevated cancer mortality for more than 50 years, driven by screening disparities and high rates of smoking and obesity, according to research published by the National Institutes of Health. Cancer also costs Kentucky $2.74 billion annually in direct healthcare expenditures and another $3.1 billion per year in lost productivity from disability and early mortality, per UofL News.
A 10-Year Target and a Push for National Recognition
Dr. Jason Chesney, Chief Administrative Officer of Brown Cancer Center, said in May 2024 that UofL Health has set a formal target to cut Kentucky's cancer death rate by 50% over the next decade, according to WHAS11. The Brown Cancer Center is also pursuing National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center designation by 2028, a push supported by an $11.5 million NIH grant awarded in December 2025 for cancer immunotherapy development, according to the University of Louisville Foundation.
Whether the Hillview facility can ease travel burdens quickly enough for patients deeper in western and central Kentucky, and how fast UofL Health can move toward its 10-year mortality goal, remain open questions, per WHAS11's reporting. For now, Sutton's own 400-mile round trips stand as a stark example of the gap the new center is meant to close, and his hope, as he told WLKY, is that it marks only a first step toward saving lives across the region.
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