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Cancer Centers of the Carolinas (CCC) was acquired by Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center (GHS) on July 1, 2012. This integration creates a regional cancer center “unlike anything else that exists between Atlanta and Durham.”
By combining CCC's expertise in outpatient cancer care with the resources of GHS’ academic health system, patients will benefit from a more robust, integrated system of clinical services, patient support programs and oncology clinical research. This type of integrated model is the standard among the nation’s leading cancer programs. The broader programming and services would also help make the center eligible for coveted National Cancer Institute designation, which would make it more competitive both for national research grants and additional patient support.
Benefits will include expanded access to multidisciplinary clinics, cancer sub-specialists typically only found in major metropolitan areas, novel research trials, patient and family support services, palliative care, nutrition support, survivorship programs, prevention programs and direct patient support. Fellowships in areas such as hematology-oncology, gynecological oncology and radiation oncology could also be a possibility.
One immediate benefit will be the integration of clinical, demographic and administrative data, which will enhance the patient experience by putting key information more readily into the hands of the physicians and clinicians.
Cancer Centers of the Carolinas plans to have the same group of physicians at the same locations with the same staff providing the same excellent care, he said.
A strength of the program will be services provided by The US Oncology Network, a division of McKesson Specialty Health, which has provided services to CCC over the past 17 years. The network will provide program support, clinical trials, evidence-based protocols, process improvement, information services and performance benchmarking services, all necessary to achieve a regional cancer center of excellence.
GHS and CCC have been working together since 2002. The collaborative Institute for Translational Oncology Research (ITOR), which is paving the way for rapid breakthroughs in new personalized cancer therapies, has already brought 14 first-in-human trials to the Upstate in concert with its Clinical Research Unit. Long-time GHS and CCC collaboration also made possible an innovative oncology rehab program and a bone marrow transplant program. CCC is already designated as a Community Clinical Oncology Program by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
