MIDDLETOWN - The rebirth of a long-vacant building into a state-of-the-art outpatient cancer treatment center was celebrated Monday with a ceremony in Middletown.

Manhattan-based cancer center Memorial Sloan Kettering purchased the vacant former Lucent Technologies building on Red Hill Road in 2013 and is now just weeks away from opening the new outpatient facility featuring about 120,000-square-foot clinical program space and a 50,000-square-foot data center.

"While we've been in New Jersey for over 20 years serving patients, we have not had a facility here in Monmouth County and there's a tremendous amount of patients who have had to come into the city on that difficult trip, just to get daily care," Dr. Craig Thompson, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering, said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"Now, all of the daily services a cancer patient will need will be right here in this facility in the county and we're really excited for that opportunity."

Dr. Elizabeth Jewell, a director of surgical services for Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, told NJ Advance Media on Friday that 30 percent of the new patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering's location in New York come from Monmouth and Ocean counties and the surrounding areas.

On Monday, Jewell said that MSK Monmouth could help those patients by reducing "the burdens and stresses of their treatments on both themselves and their loved ones, and also to provide a certain degree of normalcy to their lives in a difficult situation."

MSK Monmouth expects to provide services to address almost every aspect of cancer care, including chemotherapy and medical oncology.

"A cancer diagnosis is difficult enough, traveling for treatment shouldn't make it harder," said Dr. Jose Baseiga, physician-in-chief and chief medical officer for Memorial Sloan Kettering.

"We have here tremendous capabilities in this wonderful facility and we will also be able to expand our research enterprise," Baseiga sad. "This facility will be a world-class center for a number of research initiatives and we will advance the field thanks to MSK Monmouth."

The new cancer center will be the first Memorial Sloan Kettering regional location with operating rooms, which are scheduled to open in January.

The facility currently also has 18 infusion bays for chemotherapy, 30 exam rooms, and an on-site rehabilitation suite, which is also a first for Memorial Sloan Kettering's regional sites.

Officials said MSK Monmouth expects to have nearly 45,000 patient visits and more than 600 outpatient surgical procedures in its first year.

One of those patients will be Matawan resident Maria Rubbo, who has been a patient of Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan since 2013 when she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.

"There's no doubt that MSK takes your care to another level," Rubbo said. "MSK is well worth the trip for me, but it's so comforting knowing that this same wonderful care will be even more convenient by being so much closer to home."

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno praised the jobs being created by the opening of MSK Monmouth. The facility will have a 200 person clinical staff and more than 100 additional employees in the data center.

"But you represent far more than that. You represent a chance for survival for our family members," Guadagno said. "It used to be that people were diagnosed with cancer and told how many months they had to live. And what this building represents is, you're diagnosed with cancer and the answer is now: 'You will live.'"

MSK Monmouth is expected to welcome its first patients on Dec. 12, pending a review by the state Department of Health, and its operating rooms are scheduled to open in early January.

Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.