30&20 Years of Care

The USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital celebrates discoveries of the past and looks toward future accomplishments.

by Mary Ellen Stumpfl



In 1973, the National Cancer Institute recognized what was then called the Los Angeles County-USC Cancer Center as one of only eight comprehensive cancer centers. It grew to become the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital, which opened in 1983. Since then, USC/Norris has been a focus for cutting-edge cancer care and research. It has made an international name for itself because of the great breadth of cancer research, treatments and technology that continue to give patients the best chances of fighting cancer.


USC/Norris has established unique strengths in cancer epidemiology, studies of populations to determine cancer risks; cancer epigenetics, how genes become misregulated in cancer; and tailored therapies, through which physicians take the molecular profiles of cancer cells and fit the therapy to those profiles. Under the translational research model—where medical inquiry and medical practice come together—breakthrough treatments travel quickly from the laboratory bench to patient bedside. Instead of working in discipline-based programs, researchers and physicians work in disease-based teams to employ their combined knowledge to treat patients.


Landmark advances that have taken place at the USC/Norris have burnished its reputation. These include:

• Established the connection between hormones and cancer of the breast, ovaries, endometrium and prostate;
• Among the first to discover the oncogene (cancer-causing gene);
• Established that regular exercise in young women can reduce breast cancer risk;
• Discovered a drug to turn genes back on when they are turned off;
• Showed the first evidence that alterations in the p53 gene can identify patients who are at significantly increased risk for recurrence and death following bladder cancer surgery;
• Reported a pattern of AIDS-related cancers that have become common companions to the disease;
• Among the first to test an AIDS vaccine;
• Among the first to test anti-angiogenesis drugs in Phase II and III clinical trials;
• Discovered a new protein critical to
regulation of gene expression;
• Developed the t-pouch—an artificial bladder constructed from the small intestine—which improved quality of life for bladder cancer patients;
• Established a cancer genetics service, which provided a setting for patients to receive education and counseling about their cancer risk;
• Opened the Harold E. and Henrietta C. Lee Breast Center at USC/Norris to offer complete diagnosis, treatment and support services in one location;
• Established the Lynne Cohen Preventive Care Clinic for Women’s Cancers for women at increased risk for ovarian, breast and other gynecological cancers; and
• First California cancer center to install the CyberKnife® Stereotactic Radiosurgery System, offering a noninvasive way to treat tumors in the head, spine, chest and abdomen.


Collectively, this work has led to the development of more effective treatments, smarter prevention strategies and more knowledge about the development of cancer. Many of the discoveries developed at USC/Norris guide prevention, diagnosis and treatment standards internationally.


As the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital celebrates the anniversary of 30 and 20 years of cancer care and research, the organization’s leaders look forward to building on past scientific and clinical successes. The construction of the Harlyne J. Norris Cancer Research Tower and the recruitment of 45 new researchers and physicians will enable USC/Norris to continue the momentum of the past three decades—momentum that is moving toward one goal: making cancer a disease of the past.