LOUISIANA, USA — According to the Centers for Disease Control, Louisiana has the second-highest rate of new cancer cases in the nation.
The one that takes the most lives here is lung cancer, followed by breast, prostate, colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
Now there is new help for patients.
Along with the scary diagnosis of cancer, there are the concerns about having to leave your home and loved ones for treatment, and the financial burden of living away as well.
It's been a couple of years in the making. Thursday morning it became a reality. There's a new partnership, the Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center of Southeastern Louisiana.
“We're about to save lives together. So, we should have energy in this room and be excited,” said Pete November, CEO of Ochsner told the crowd gathered for the announcement.
The partnership is one of seven in the U.S. and will operate out of seven Ochsner sites in St. Tammany, Baton Rouge, Uptown, Kenner, the Westbank, and on the main campus in Jefferson at the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center.
“One in three Americans will have an invasive cancer in their lifetime, and there is a growing need for more specialty services that allow patients to stay close to their families,” said Ochsner donor Gayle Benson.
What this means for patients is a chance to try emerging treatments close to home.
“I believe one of the most exciting parts of it will be expanding access to clinical trials
and new therapies, years before those therapies become standard of care,” said Michael Hulefeld, President and COO of Ochsner Health.
“Just 15 years ago, at an event like this, people would be saying to each other, ‘Why doesn't the immune system recognize the first cancer cell? Why can't we program the immune system to fight cancer?’ Well, good news. We can,” said Dr. Peter Pisters, President of the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
And it will mean the hiring of more nurses, and doctors, so cancer patients can see surgeons, and medical and radiation oncologists, in one day and leave with a treatment game plan. Ochsner is recruiting infusion nurses now.
“lf you can stay at home, get a better chance of getting a good night's sleep, maybe continue working in some way, that's the simple thing,” said Dr. Brian Moore, Director of the Ochsner Cancer Institute.
This new partnership gives cancer patients even more options. Already there are nearly 150 cancer clinical trials across more than four dozen Louisiana and Mississippi hospitals, as part of the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network. That's an LSU Health-run program at many of the local LCMC hospitals, and others across the state.
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