But while her future looks bright, the 25-year-old Logan resident says her past treatments - surgery, chemotherapy and radiation - would have been easier had they been available closer to home.

"I felt really nauseous, and traveling to Salt Lake City made me even more tired," Boudrero said of the 180-plus-mile round trip. "If I got down there and my blood count was too low, I had to turn around and come all the way back for nothing."

A cure for that commute, though, sits on the horizon for the nearly 120 Cache Valley residents who are diagnosed annually with forms of cancer that require radiation therapy and must now travel for treatment to Ogden, Salt Lake City or Pocatello, Idaho.

Intermountain Healthcare and the Huntsman Cancer Institute are teaming up to bring a cancer-treatment center to northern Utah, possibly attaching it to the existing hospital at 1400 N. 500 East in Logan.

"This will be very successful," said Logan Regional Hospital administrator Bob Cash, noting that about 300 Cache Valley residents are diagnosed each year with cancer. "The community is where the need for this has come from and where the interest has been generated."

That comes as good news to Logan surgeon Scott Grover, who knows how difficult it is for his cancer patients to travel long distances.

"Every one of my patients hates it," he said, adding that it is especially hard for individuals forced to make the trek every day for six weeks. "It's a significant deal for them to have to leave town for treatment."

Cash said Intermountain Healthcare is conducting a six-month internal campaign to raise $1.2 million of the $5 million required to complete the project. It then plans to reach out to the community for financial support.

An architect has already been retained for the project. Officials have not released a target date for completion of the center.

abrunson@sltrib.com