City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center accepts first patients
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center has opened its doors in Irvine, California.
- The comprehensive cancer center is connected to the City of Hope campus in Duarte, but will feature new programs, including an integrative oncology program led by Richard T. Lee, MD.
- The new campus will address all aspects of cancer care, from prevention through survivorship.
Before the opening of City of Hope’s new comprehensive cancer center, many residents of Orange County, California, faced a long commute for advanced cancer care.
“Orange County is the sixth largest county in the country by population, and we found out that of those diagnosed with cancer, about 20% were leaving the county for care,” Edward S. Kim, MD, MBA, FACP, FASCO, physician-in-chief of City of Hope Orange County and vice physician-in-chief and professor at City of Hope National Medical Center, told Healio. “Many in need of advanced cancer care were traveling to our Duarte campus, which can be a 2-hour commute each way. Our Orange County expansion is a response to a pressing need in this community.”
The City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, which accepted its first patients Aug. 22, is Orange County’s most advanced comprehensive cancer center. One of only 52 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, City of Hope has made its specialized cancer care, research and lifesaving treatments more accessible to the county’s 3.2 million residents.
“City of Hope is the only institution 100% dedicated to preventing, treating and curing cancer on the West Coast,” Kim said. “When you have cancer, you want and need that highly specialized expertise.”
Kim spoke with Healio about the center’s programs, ranging from preventive care to survivorship, and the goals for the campus — which will also include a specialty cancer hospital — going forward.
Healio: How will City of Hope’s Lennar Foundation Cancer Center be unique yet connected to the Duarte campus?
Kim: We have set this up so that these two campuses are connected very directly. The majority of the people I recruited to the second campus have come from other institutions across the country, as far as the East Coast, the Midwest, the South and other parts of California. So, we have created a de novo faculty but are functioning as a singular entity that is very connected. If we don’t have something available in Irvine, we can send the patient up to Duarte or seek the expertise of an expert in Duarte to deliver the care in Irvine. The reverse also applies — we are establishing programs in Irvine that don’t exist in Duarte. It’s not a disconnected or an affiliation model — we are very connected.
Healio: Can you describe the new campus’ integrative oncology program?
I recruited Richard T. Lee, MD, from Case Western University, and previously of MD Anderson, to help organize and grow our program at City of Hope. He’s a medical oncologist and international leader in integrative oncology. He’s based at our Orange County campus, but the program will be available for all of City of Hope. That’s one advantage of a new campus — we can experiment and test ideas. Dr. Lee will be able to pilot some new ideas and see if they work or not. We’re very excited to have him — he’s a system leader, and that’s the goal. We have several other system leaders based at our new campus. It shows how connected we are as an enterprise.
Healio: How will the new campus address issues across the cancer care continuum?
Kim: We are creating opportunities to help not only people diagnosed with cancer, but anyone who is worried about cancer. City of Hope has robust prevention and screening programs and we’re building on those programs in Orange County. We have genetic counselors; we will do genomic testing and implement clinical trials including in cancer prevention. We not only want to help battle cancer if you have it, but also to prevent it from occurring in the first place. On the other side of the spectrum, we want to provide help in diagnosis, treatment and cure, all the way into survivorship.
Healio: How have things been going so far? How many patients have you seen at the new campus to date?
Kim: I don’t like to give numbers, but it’s going very well. The response from new patients in the county has exceeded our expectations.
For more information :
Edward S. Kim, MD, MBA, FACP, FASCO, can be reached at City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, 1000 FivePoint, Irvine, CA 92618; email: edwkim@coh.org.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts