5 Reasons Why Roswell Park’s NCI Designation Matters to You
When you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer, you need to find a cancer center that will offer you the best treatment options and best chance of surviving the disease.
In Western and Upstate New York, all roads lead to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the first three nationally designated comprehensive cancer centers — a recognition from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that places Roswell Park among the very top cancer centers.
When Congress passed the National Cancer Act of 1971, the NCI recognized Roswell Park for leading the way in groundbreaking research, multidisciplinary patient care and revolutionary, lifesaving treatment options, and set the center forth as a model for all cancer centers to follow. Roswell Park has retained this designation for more than five decades, and this year, Roswell Park achieved its highest rating ever from the NCI — exceptional. But what does this really mean for a cancer patient? Why should you seek treatment at an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, and does it make a difference?
It does. Here are five things to know about why this designation matters to you and your cancer care.
You’ll have access to the very latest treatments.
Roswell Park provides access to the very best possible treatment for their cancer. We are the only cancer center in the region to offer groundbreaking cellular therapies treatments that use your own immune cells to attack hard to-treat cancers, leading to a greater chance at survival.
Our doctors are experts in the latest technology, meaning you’ll have access to less-invasive surgeries, new radiopharmaceuticals and the latest stem cell transplant approaches that can help you get home and on the road to recovery faster. Our physician scientists see patients in addition to conducting re search, bringing all the available tools in their toolbox to your bedside, including clinical trials not available anywhere else.
Being treated at an NCI designated comprehensive cancer center also means our doctors are sharing their experiences with physicians at other centers and are learning from them too, and if we don’t offer a clinical trial at Roswell Park that addresses your particular cancer, we can help you through our peer network of experts at other facilities.
2. We attract the best and brightest cancer doctors and researchers in the country.
Buffalo is internationally known for our wings and weather, but there’s so much more to be proud of here. Roswell Park’s recognition of excellence, access to funding, collaboration and networking, multi-disciplinary approach, innovation and cutting-edge clinical trials, makes us a sought-after destination for physicians and researchers. This means our patients are treated by leaders in the field of cancer care who write the national treatment guide lines used by other physicians across the country and around the world. Patients in other facilities might benefit from this leadership, but at Roswell Park patients meet and are cared for by such visionaries.
3. Better survival.
You can improve your chances of surviving your cancer. Studies have shown that patients treated at an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center have better outcomes – including survival and living longer by up to 25% compared to those who are treated at facilities without the same designation.
Our focus at Roswell Park is cancer: From providing the most accurate diagnosis to working with a collaborative team of oncologists, surgeons, therapists, supportive care teams and other specialists to ensure your treatment is tailored to your specific cancer to provide you with the best possible results.
4. We care for you, not just your cancer.
Your cancer care goes beyond cancer treatments. We integrate other ser vices into your treatment that contribute to your healing: physical and occupational therapy, psychologists, respiratory therapists, nutritionists, fertility-sparing techniques, support groups and other supportive and survivorship care to make the cancer journey a little easier. We care about your quality of life and do all we can to support you from the time of diagnosis through ringing the Victory Bell to signify the end of treatment and into survivorship. We’re with you and your support system every step of the way.
5. We’re already working on tomorrow’s therapies.
As a patient at Roswell Park, you have access to the best possible therapies for your specific kind of cancer. And our experts continue to break ground on new treatments that are less invasive, less toxic and better protective of your quality of life. We’re building new facilities to allow our experts to keep developing next-genera tion cell therapies, immu notherapies, theranostic approaches and cancer vaccines, further reducing the cancer burden for our patients. Our doctors con duct clinical trials to see whether combinations of existing, approved therapies could mean fewer treatments with the same, or better, results. All FDA approved treatments for every type of cancer began as clinical trials; these trials are closely watched and monitored by our researchers and are used to help develop more effective therapies for our patients now and in the future. We may have more than 125 years of groundbreaking experience and advancements in cancer technology to our respected name, but we’re not settling for the victories of yesterday. We’re dedicated to our mission, our singular focus: Creating a world without cancer.
No one ever wants to be told they have cancer. But if you or a loved one receive that news, you’ll want a National Cancer Institute designated comprehensive cancer center that stands out among others in the re gion, and across the na tion, as a trusted source for exceptional cancer care and dedication to patients. If you’re in Western New York, you have one in your backyard.