Gundersen Lutheran is one of 30 sites chosen by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, to be part of a national network of community cancer centers offering expanded research opportunities and state-of-the-art cancer care at hospitals and clinics serving largely rural, suburban, small-town and underserved urban populations. Gundersen Lutheran will receive about $2.75 million over the next two years to enhance cancer programs, services and research as part of the NCI National Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP).
Our Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders is known for the high-quality, leading-edge cancer care provided to patients. Last year alone our patients had access to more than 165 of the most promising clinical trial protocols that were offered in the United States. Being a part of the NCCCP will allow us to offer even more exciting new treatment options for patients and enhance our programs and services to advance cancer research and care for patients in our mainly rural service area.
The NCCCP is a network of community cancer centers with services spanning the full cancer continuum—from prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship through end-of-life care. It began in 2007 with 16 hospital-based community cancer centers in 14 states. The NCCCP is using $40 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to expand its number of community-based sites from 16 to 30. NCCCP is designed to create new research opportunities, with an emphasis on minority and underserved populations. Expanding the NCCCP network will provide access to more patients in community cancer centers to support these research efforts.
NCCCP centers, like Gundersen Lutheran, are addressing ways to reduce healthcare disparities, improve access to clinical trials, improve overall quality of care, promote an infrastructure to collect high-quality biospecimens such as blood and tissue samples for research, and link with national computer networks that support research. The centers also work to improve survivorship, palliative care services and patient advocacy. In addition, the program is studying ways for patients to have access to the latest, evidence-based care close to where they live. For a variety of reasons, many cancer patients cannot commute to major academic medical centers for treatment. In fact, 85 percent of patients are diagnosed, and receive at least their first course of treatment, at a community hospital.
Along with expanding hematology/oncology outreach and telemedicine programs, Gundersen Lutheran plans use this funding to:
- Offer health fairs for minority residents to provide education and screening opportunities
- Establish an oncology clinic for an underserved population in their service area
- Increase the number of patients participating in clinical trials
- Improve ability to share data with other healthcare organizations by adopting compatible health IT software
- Expand the BioBank
- Enhance survivorship program
Participation in NCCCP will allow Gundersen Lutheran and Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation to hire about 10 new full and part-time employees to support this work.
For a list of all sites in the NCCCP network or for more information on the program, visit ncccp.cancer.gov.