The Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre (AWRCC is celebrating it's fifth birthday on the Border.

Mr Burke said the community involvement in lobbying for the centre was outstanding, referring especially to when Eric Turner led community members to join together to form the shape of a heart on the causeway.

"Community driven-ness, the public support that we got, sometimes that's what you need," he said.

"You just have to show that the community wants something and they want it here and not constantly rely on government funding.

"It's a fantastic centre that's providing a lot of hope in whatever way, shape or form, for people who are suffering terribly with cancer."

But Mr Burke said the AWRCC Trust was also due credit.

Trust chairperson Michelle Hensel said the Trust had spent $2.5 million on the centre so far.

"We fully fund the wellness centre, we fund research and research nurses, we pay for major and even small pieces of equipment and we are also involved in education," she said.

"So overall it's just a way of making sure that each and every tiny piece of the jigsaw puzzle falls together and that we are continuously providing local regional cancer patients the best service that they possibly have and the best treatment they can have overall."

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Clinical director of Hume regional integrated cancer services Dr Craig Underhill said there had been huge growth in the AWRCC over the last five years.

"We're doing things now that we weren't able to do five years ago, including some radiotherapy treatments which weren't available before," he said.

"We've got the PET scanner which was one of the first in regional Australia...we've got more clinical trials now, we've got more support staff...we've got a hematology service, which we didn't have.

"Also over time the existing services have grown."

Dr Underhill said the AWRCC was important to improve the health outcomes of regional cancer patients.

"Twenty years ago there was a growing body of evidence that there was a gap between regional patients and metropolitan," he said.

"Things like the five years survival, how many people survive five years after a cancer diagnosis, and there were some distinctive difference between metropolitan and regional."

Dr Underhill said the AWRCC was helping close that gap.

He said it was also encouraging economic growth on the Border.

"By having good health services, we know that it's more likely that people will live and work in a regional area and it will attract more economic development," he said.

"It's really vital that we develop the health services as well, so that we can support the growing population and I think people are more likely to come and live and work in the area if they know the health services are good."

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