The USC/Norris comprehensive cancer center and hospital anniversary celebrates past discoveries and looks toward future successes.
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 in the nation. It grew to become the USC/Norris Comprehensive
Cancer Center and Hospital, which
opened in 1983. Since then, USC/Norris 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.
As the USC/Norris Comprehen-sive Cancer Center and Hospital celebrates the
anniversary of 30 and 20 years of research and cancer care, respectively,
the organization’s leaders look forward to the chance to build on past
scientific and clinical successes.
USC/Norris has established unique strengths in cancer epidemiology, in which
populations are studied to determine cancer risks; cancer epigenetics, a look
at how genes become misregulated in cancer; and tailored therapies, in which
the therapy is fit to the molecular profiles of an individual’s cancer
cells. Under the translational research model, breakthrough treatments travel
quickly from 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 include these innovations:
• establishing the connection between hormones and cancers of the breast,
ovaries, endometrium and prostate;
• discovering the oncogene (cancer causing gene);
• establishing that regular exercise in young women can reduce breast
cancer risk;
• discovering a drug to turn genes on when they are turned off;
• showing that alterations in the p53 gene can identify patients at risk
for recurrence and death following bladder cancer surgery;
• reporting a pattern of AIDS-related cancers that are common companions
to the disease;
• testing anti-angiogenesis drugs in phase II and III clinical trials;
• discovering a new protein to regulate gene expression;
• developing the t-pouch—an artificial bladder constructed from
the small intestine;
• establishing a cancer genetics service for patients to receive education
and counseling about their cancer risk;
• opening the Harold E. and Henrietta C. Lee Breast Center to offer diagnosis,
treatment and support services in one location;
• establishing the Lynne Cohen Preventive Care Clinic for Women’s
Cancers for women at high risk for ovarian, breast and other gynecological
cancers; and
• being the first California cancer center to install the CyberKnife,
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 greater knowledge about the development
of cancer.
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, moving toward one goal: making cancer
a disease of the past.
-
Back Next Index