What’s in a designation?
The National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Centers Program is one of the anchors of the nation’s cancer research effort.
There are currently 69 designated cancer centers, located in 35 states and the District of Columbia, that form the backbone of the institute’s programs for studying and controlling cancer. At any given time, hundreds of research studies are underway at the cancer centers, ranging from basic laboratory research to clinical assessments of new treatments. Many of these studies are collaborative and may involve several cancer centers, as well as other partners in industry and the community.
Most of the centers are affiliated with university medical centers, although several are freestanding centers that engage only in cancer research. had to find the doctors first to remove tumors and then to put her on a chemotherapy and radiation regimen.
‘It was scary’
“It was scary,” she said of trying to find doctors all over town with expertise in dealing with her problem. “We didn’t have any lung specialists dealing with what I had.”
That she is alive today has more to do with luck than it does with coordinated care.
She read about a new drug that could act on a particular mutation that causes lung cancer. And almost simultaneously, she was assigned a doctor at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada — Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang, a prostate cancer specialist and researcher — who was aware of the mutation that causes 1 percent to 2 percent of lung cancers.
Tests showed Buonanno had the mutation and Vogelzang got the drug for her. While the drug is only supposed to fight the mutation for 18 months, it’s still effective on her cancer six years after she began using it.
“I was lucky Dr. Vogelzang keeps abreast of all kinds of cancers, not just prostate,” Buonanno told the Las Vegas Review-journal in 2016.
Contact Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702 387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.