The Arizona Cancer Center (AZCC) was founded in 1976, as a Division of the
University of Arizona's College of Medicine. In 1990, the AZCC was designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the NCI. Currently,
the Arizona Cancer Center is one of only two comprehensive
cancer centers within the five-state region of Arizona,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The Center
is well situated to provide care for the diversity
of populations in Arizona and the Southwest, including
a predominance of Latino, American Indian, and white,
non-Latino. Our mission is to prevent and cure cancer,
and to accomplish our mission, the basic, translational/
clinical, and cancer prevention and control research
is carried out in six programs, including molecular
genetics, cancer metastases and signaling, cancer imaging
and technology, gastrointestinal cancer, therapeutic development and cancer prevention and control. Currently
comprised of more than 200 well-recognized researchers,
faculty, and physicians working in Tucson and Phoenix,
as well as a large support staff, the Center is directed
by David S. Alberts, M.D. Under his dedicated leadership,
the Arizona Cancer Center continues to expand in both
its size and mission to serve the citizens of Arizona,
the Southwest, and beyond.
The heart of the Center’s success
is its vision in exploring the frontiers of cancer
research and treatment. The Center is well known for
its translational research and for its Cancer Prevention
and Control Program, which is one of the largest in the country. AZCC's translational research has spawned
several new agents which were discovered at the Arizona
Cancer Center, many of which are currently in clinical
trials both at the Center and nationally. For fiscal
year 2004, the Arizona Cancer Center ranked number
16 nationally in the total amount of dollars awarded
from the National Cancer Institute ($37,534,303). And
among more than 1,958 hospitals nationwide, the Center’s
hospital affiliate, University Medical Center, ranked
20th in the nation for cancer care, according to U.S
News and World Report’s 15th annual guide
to “America’s Best Hospitals.”
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