CU Cancer Center brings specialty care to Colorado

From left: Charlie Crevling, Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer; Peggy Carey; Alex Urquhart, M.D.; Patricia Hardenbergh, M.D., from Shaw Regional Cancer Center; Michael Glode, M.D.; and Mark Kochevar, MBA from CU Cancer Center.

Far left and far right: Tom Purcell, M.D., MBA, and Michael Glode, M.D., from CU Cancer Center Virginia; M. Tjan-Wettstein, M.D.; Mark R. Hancock, M.D.; Paula Marchionda, M.D., from St. Mary’s Regional Cancer Center.

The University of Colorado Cancer Center has cemented relationships with three hospitals bringing specialty oncology care and clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute to cancer survivors in Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Vail-Edwards, and surrounding areas.

CU Cancer Center renewed agreements with St. Mary’s Regional Cancer Center in Grand Junction, Shaw Regional Cancer Center at Vail Valley Medical Center and Calaway-Young Cancer Center at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs.

Signs point the way to CU For Colorado outreach locations As part of CU President Bruce Benson’s CU For Colorado campaign, the CU Cancer Center and CU School of Medicine are presenting branded lobby signs to hospitals where the university has outreach partnerships to symbolize the pride the university has in serving health care needs in those Colorado communities. “One of CU’s untold stories is the immense amount of outreach our campuses provide to people and places in Colorado,” said CU Regent Glen Gallegos, a Grand Junction resident elected to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. “The physicians at the CU Cancer Center travel to provide services to patients in communities that do not have access to this level of critical care. The patients don’t have to travel to Denver – CU comes to them, to serve them.” The CU School of Medicine – through University Physicians Inc., which oversees hundreds of outreach agreements – plans to present two of the branded lobby signs to Grand Junction next week; dozens more will be delivered to medical facilities across the state in the coming months. Are you part of a CU outreach effort? To help spread the word, click here to submit your program’s information to the CU For Colorado website. If you deliver an outreach program at a location where a CU sign could be displayed, please contact outreach@cu.edu.

The agreements bring access to state-of-the-art care to cancer patients in Colorado who may not be able to travel to the Denver area for specialized care. Cancer survivors throughout the region also will receive increased access to ongoing phase I trials at CU Cancer Center that are testing the latest drugs in the earliest tests in humans.

“One of the goals of CU Cancer Center is to bring the latest in cancer care and clinical trials to people in remote areas of Colorado,” said Dan Theodorescu, M.D., Ph.D. “We need hospital partners across the state to make this happen. Without the help of our outreach sites, we would not be able to share our expertise on this scale.”

CU Cancer Center is the only comprehensive cancer center as designated by the National Cancer Institute in the Rocky Mountain region. There are currently 78 clinical trials underway at CU Cancer Center outreach sites.

“We have scientists, right here in Colorado, leading the way in research in multiple cancer types,” Theodorescu said. “In the clinic, we craft health care guidelines used as the gold standard by oncologists everywhere to establish treatment plans for cancer survivors. The world watches what happens at CU Cancer Center.”

In addition to cancer care and clinical trials, affiliate physicians take part in multi-disciplinary video tumor boards to discuss interesting and unusual cases. This allows physicians from all sites to collaborate with one another and with specialists from CU Cancer Center. The intent of the tumor boards is to enhance collaboration and education.

Physicians from the outreach sites also visit the CU Cancer Center at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus on an ongoing basis to strengthen communication, relationships and collaboration. In addition, physicians from CU Cancer Center visit the outreach sites on a regular basis to collaborate with community physicians on care and training.

“Through our interactions with the colleagues at our affiliates, we not only gain knowledge of the challenges and research opportunities they have,” said Michael Glode, M.D., associate director of community engagement for CU Cancer Center. “In many cases we also have discovered new ways to approach education and research that we can apply here at the Anschutz Medical Campus.”