Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and Liberal Senator Zed Seselja officially opened the new Canberra Region Cancer Centre at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

The centre was due to open to patients in November but the opening was delayed by nine months after a water pipe burst, flooding the building with 40,000 litres of hot water.

It is located next to the Radiation Oncology building and will offer chemotherapy, radiation therapy, haematology, immunology as well as research and teaching programs. It will feature a pathology collection centre, pharmacy, patient and family area, an information centre as well as other services from non-government organisations.

"It is going to co-locate all services in one spot instead of patients having to go to multiple appointments dotted across the hospital, this will very much wrap those services and appointments around the patient," Ms Gallagher said.

"For staff, patients and family, it's a completely new experience and one which I have no doubt will be very positive for them. It's been designed around patient need to make their experience more comfortable and it will certainly position us very well."

Ms Gallagher said it was pleasing to see the centre finally open, admitting it had been a challenging project.

"Certainly from the point of view of the constraints of the site, it had to be built near the radiation bunkers which radiation oncology have so we didn't have much of an envelope to work with. There have been issues about rock under the ground and issues with the flood," she said.

"It has had its challenges and people have worked hard to get to where we are today."

Mr Seselja said the centre would offer more comprehensive cancer services to patients and their families.

"It will mean they have a much better quality facility, it will mean things like accommodation, particularly for those who are coming from the region, it will mean people don't have to travel as far. In many cases, they won't have to go to other places in order to get cancer treatment and that's got to be a very, very good thing," he said.

The federal government poured $28.3 million into the project, with the remaining cost funded by the ACT government.

Medical oncologist Professor Robin Stuart-Harris, a major advocate for the project, said the centre offered not only a nicer environment for patients and staff, but also new and more integrated services, making treatments more efficient for patients.

"In these multi-disciplinary clinics, patients can and come and see a specialist from each of the specialities so they can (have) their treatment all in one go. We're starting in a small way and gradually I hope we'll extend those multi-disciplinary clinics," he said.

Professor Stuart-Harris said there was a need for such a centre in Canberra, with demand for cancer services having increased 13 per cent annually for the past seven years.

"Last year, there were 1500 new patients seen in radiation oncology and about 1000 new patients seen in medical oncology, which does the drug treatment," he said.

The centre will open to patients on August 18 and a community open day will be held on Saturday from noon to 3pm.