Lower Manhattan’s only hospital is planning an $8 million wellness center to offer primary care services to tens of thousands of downtown residents and Wall Street employees.

New York Downtown Hospital’s Wellness and Prevention Center, the beneficiary of a $5 million grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., will feature an MRI machine and a designated women’s health program. The 10,000-square-foot space is projected to open in 2010, and use of the MRI machine will begin next year.

Citing a residential boom in the area, hospital officials said the center will enable medical staff to care for an influx of patients, and in particular an estimated 900 families in a new residential tower across the street from the hospital that is being developed by Forest City Ratner. About 3,000 babies are born each year at the hospital, and 82% of patients live in Chinatown.

“Our primary care focus to the downtown community is our very reason for existing,” the hospital’s president and CEO, Jeffrey Menkes, said.

Anorexia Anthology Hits Bookshelves

Essays about anorexia penned by several prominent writers are part of a new anthology about eating disorders that is set to come out this week.

“Going Hungry: Writers on Desire, Self-Denial, and Overcoming Anorexia,” edited by Kate Taylor, a staff reporter of The New York Sun, will hit bookshelves tomorrow. The 352-page paperback includes essays by literary personalities such as Joyce Maynard, Francine du Plessix Gray, and Louise Glück, among other women and men. The book is being published by Anchor, a division of Random House.

Cancer Second Leading Cause of Death in New York

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among New Yorkers after heart disease, state health officials said.

According to the state’s Cancer Registry, nearly 52,000 New Yorkers were diagnosed with cancer between 2001 and 2005. About 18,500 cancer deaths were reported each year during this time. Among women, breast, lung, and colorectal cancers are the three most common kinds after skin cancer. Among men, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers are most common. “Prevention and early detection are still the keys to reducing cancer incidence and cancer deaths,” the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Richard Daines, said in a statement.

Primary Care Group Receives $1 Million

The Primary Care Development Corp. has received $1 million in federal funding to fund new and renovated primary care facilities in New York.

The funding, from the U.S. Department of Treasury, was part of $54 million allocated to 89 organizations nationwide. Since 1993, the Primary Care Development Corp. has invested $200 million in 70 projects that provide primary care.

esolomont@nysun.com