Smart Approach Leads to National Selection
NCI Launches the Community Cancer Centers Program to Bring State-of-the-Art Cancer Care to All
The Nancy N. and J. C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion (LCRP) is one of only 21 community hospitals chosen to participate in the National Cancer Institute’s Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP). The NCCCP’s purpose is to offer NCI programs locally in community hospitals; bringing the most advanced cancer care and clinical cancer research to you and the surrounding region.
This program also encourages the collaboration of private practices that have close links to NCI research and a network of 63 NCI-designated comprehensive Cancer Centers. The research conducted from the programs offered at St. Joseph’s/Candler’s LCRP will help create ways to better serve the needs of elderly, rural, inner city and low-income patients, as well as racial and ethnic groups with elevated cancer rates.
An estimated 85 percent of cancer patients in the United States are diagnosed in or near the communities in which they live. Due to the distance from their homes, or for economic reasons, many will never be treated in specialized cancer centers. Fortunately, for Savannah-area residents, the NCCCP bridges these gaps and brings nationally recognized multi-specialty treatment to the community setting; where evidence has shown patients diagnosed and treated in this manner may live longer and have a better quality of life.
The NCCCP has six main goals or “pillars” that are the focus of the 30 sites; each incorporating their own local, unique demographic. The LCRP already had in place several key components of each pillar, which was instrumental in their selection to participate in this program.
1. Increased Access to Clinical Trials
This means that Savannah and surrounding area patients do not have to travel in order to receive access to national clinical trials that were previously only available at larger centers.
2. Reduce Cancer Healthcare Disparities
St. Joseph’s/Candler and the LCRP actively reach out to the community through numerous programs and outlets, bringing more residents into the system of care and helping the NCI to better understand and address the root causes of disparities in healthcare.
3. Collect, Store and Share Biospecimen Samples for Research
With access to a broad cross-section of patients throughout Georgia who voluntarily provide tissue and blood samples, researchers have a greater opportunity to study both normal and cancerous cells, which can lead to more effective, innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer in the future.
4. National Database of Electronic Medical Records
With patient consent and safeguards for confidentiality and security, this program seeks to link information to NCI’s electronic patient data repository; leading to a nationwide network of patient information that will provide enormous benefits to cancer researchers.
5. Enhance Cancer Survivorship and Palliative Care Services
NCCCP centers are building cancer survivorship and palliative care services into standard treatment programs at community hospitals, including psychosocial and hospice initiatives. Treating the symptoms of the disease, as well as the disease itself, is an example of how these services benefit the patient.
6. Improve Quality of Care
NCCCP cancer centers promote multidisciplinary cancer care that is patient centered, data driven, evidence-based, and delivered through coordinated teams of physicians and staff in a community setting.
For more information about the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program, please visit the home page at http://ncccp.cancer.gov.
