Newsbreak
Cancer hospital to promote synergy between research, patient care
By Kirsten Michener
With eyes on the future, UCSF is building a cancer hospital at Mission Bay that will create new opportunities for collaboration and innovation to advance scientific discovery and the development of new treatments.
The new UCSF Cancer Hospital at Mission Bay will be colocated with UCSF’s biomedical research campus to strengthen the University’s unique ability to translate discoveries into innovative treatments and to address the increased demand for care. The planned facility will enhance UCSF’s reputation as one of the best cancer programs in the country. UCSF ranks as the eighth-best cancer center in the nation, according to the 2008 survey conducted by US News & World Report.
“You get a sense of a great future at Mission Bay,” says Peter Carroll, associate dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and professor and chair of the Department of Urology. The cancer hospital has always had its sights set on Mission Bay because expanding the campus at that site will allow UCSF the space to plan strategically. “We are simultaneously building a research and clinical community that is tightly wound and synergistic,” Carroll says.
Frank McCormick, director of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF, is enthusiastic about the possibilities for collaboration between basic research scientists and clinicians at Mission Bay.
“This is our dream – to have a campus where clinical and basic scientists can commingle,” he says. “We can do better for our patients when we’re at Mission Bay. There are so many basic scientists at Mission Bay, and to add clinicians to the mix will grant more exposure between the two groups. It’s a two-way street, and it will enable us to give our patients the best access to the best treatments possible.”
Encouraging regular interaction between basic scientists and clinicians will speed promising treatments from the lab to patients and ultimately lead to treatments and cures. “We can push the translational research envelope further than anywhere in the United States, bringing discovery faster to the patient,” Carroll says. “We think it’s ideal.”
Opportunities for Synergy
Other opportunities for synergy will emerge by establishing the cancer hospital as part of a troika of new hospitals at Mission Bay. Cancer specialists will be right on hand to consult with physicians and other members of patient care teams for patients at the children’s and women’s hospitals.
While cancer patients will be treated at all three hospitals, Carroll sees an opportunity for complementarity in both treatment and research between the three patient populations. “A lot of the molecular pathways are the same across types of cancers,” he explains. “Both the cancer hospital and the children’s and women’s hospitals will treat different types of cancers, but on the research side these may be complementary. Even though these are different patient populations with different malignancies, at the cancer center we look at pathways across types of cancers.”
Carroll likens what’s taking shape at Mission Bay to transforming a child’s toy. “Take time to twist them, and you can come up with something that is unique, symmetrical and makes sense,” he says. “That’s what this is. Combining hospitals for cancer, children and women, we are building a unique opportunity to treat different patient populations together across specialties.”
“Go down to Mission Bay,” Carroll concludes. “Walk around. You can see the future there.”