The first patients walked into the new Suzanne H. Arnold Center for Breast Health this morning.

Notice the word missing from the name of the center at the Lancaster General Health Campus?

"C-A-N-C-E-R."

"I didn't want the word 'cancer' in the name. I didn't want fear associated with the center," said the Suzanne H. Arnold, whose generous financial gift made possible the 20,000-square-foot, $3 million center in Building 2104 at the Harrisburg Pike campus.

There's a good reason not to associate fear with the center. It's about more than cancer diagnoses. It's also about education, screening, getting treatment and getting better.

The center is the new place for diagnostic procedures previously performed at Breast Care Center at Women & Babies Hospital, just across the campus. The new center is larger, designed for better flow and features new and upgraded technology.

With areas for screening and treatment, its equipment includes three digital mammography units, two ultrasound units and a stereotactic biopsy unit that can extract tiny tissue samples so, for many patients, there's no need for surgery.

Women still will have the option of being screened at any of Lancaster General's affiliate sites, including the Breast Care Center at Women & Babies, but all readings of screenings taken at those sites will happen at the first-floor Suzanne H. Arnold Center, as well as cancer treatment and follow-up care.

"Our space at the Breast Care Center at Women & Babies Hospital was established in 1999, but our volume has just really grown," Kathleen L. Harrison, Lancaster General vice president of operations, said. "The space was inadequate to offer a full range of services and for technological advancement. This is 20,000 square feet here, and at Women & Babies, it's less than 9,000 square feet."

Dr. Nitin Tanna, a diagnostic radiologist and breast imaging specialist, said the new center also has an MRI downstairs, making it more convenient for scheduling than from Women & Babies Hospital.

"The previous space was fragmented with the MRI in this building and another at Norlanco (in Elizabethtown). That made it difficult to coordinate," Tanna said.

"Nurse navigators" can help with that. Each patient is assigned a navigator to help get what is needed at the center, including scheduling appointments and finding support groups. Navigators can be reached by patients anytime via telephone or e-mail if they need emotional support or answers to questions. In fact, from a patient's first step inside the center, they are greeted and escorted from place to place.

The center's spa-like setting — replete with original artwork — also was important to Arnold, 67, of Manheim Township, who makes Chinese brush paintings. Although she's not a breast cancer survivor, she was indirectly touched by the disease. She wanted other women to have top care that starts with screening.

"I moved to Lancaster five years ago, and I wanted to do something here," Arnold said. "All my friends have had some contact with breast cancer — either a family member or someone they know."

And while the amount of Arnold's gift hasn't been disclosed, those involved in the center largely credit her with making it happen.

"This is not her personal issue for her," Lancaster General Cancer Center director Randall Oyer said of Arnold. "She asked what she could do to help. And it's beautiful. I saw the center when it was just walls and plaster."

Many more will see it now that it's up and running.

"Only 5 percent of those who come through here will actually have cancer," Dr. Rebecca Pennell, a diagnostic radiologist and breast imaging specialist, said. "However, lots and lots of people will pass through these doors."

More than 40,000 mammograms were read at the breast care center last year. Harrison said that, from those, 357 women were diagnosed with breast cancer.

The more sophisticated technology at the new center is likely to mean up to a 10 percent increase in the number of women called back for more testing, according to Lancaster General mammography program manager Juanita Elledge.

And for those at higher risk for breast cancer, the Suzanne H. Arnold center also features genetic counseling to assess risk and help patients be more proactive about screenings.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com