Cancer Services and the Comprehensive Cancer Center

Most countries and numerous global and local organizations are addressing the challenges of cancer (Blanchet and others 2013; Knaul, Alleyne, Atun, and others 2012), including the development of comprehensive national cancer control programs designed to reduce the number of cancer cases and deaths and to improve the quality of life of cancer patients through evidence-based strategies for prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and palliation. A national cancer control program addresses the and delivery of many of cancer control (http://www.who.int/cancer/nccp/en/). The delivery of most services is anchored in comprehensive cancer centers (Gralow and others 2012; Hensher, Price, and Adomakoh 2006; Sloan and Gelband 2007). This chapter describes an optimal framework for a comprehensive cancer center, which can be a free-standing dedicated institution, a program within an academic health science center or a community hospital, or a group of hospitals providing an integrated program. The first section presents an overview of the framework for a comprehensive cancer center, which includes three levels that are embedded within a comprehensive cancer system. Detailed information on each level is presented, followed by a discussion of quality as an integrating theme for the framework. The chapter concludes by detailing the benefits that a comprehensive cancer center provides to a country’s cancer control and health care efforts.