Cancer Treatment and Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center

Established in 1974, the Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) is the result of the evolution of the American Oncologic Hospital (AOH), the nation's first hospital to dedicate its services solely to the treatment of cancer. Located in Philadelphia, the AOH opened the doors to its modest Victorian home location in 1904. That hospital has grown over the years into the sprawling FCCC, 100 bed hospital that concentrates exclusively on providing the cancer community at large with advanced forms of cancer education, treatment and research services.

The FCCC is the only cancer hospital of its kind in the region, and the medical facility has been consistently ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the leading Cancer Centers in the country. In 1986, in an effort to make its cancer fighting services more accessible to residents in the surrounding areas, the FCCC established the Fox Chase Cancer Center Partners Program. The preceding initiative established a network of FCCC affiliated hospitals in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area. The FCCC Partners Program was the first cancer services network of its kind in the nation, and today, the FCCC offers its services through 14 satellite hospitals that are now part of the Partners Program.

A National Network of Cancer Education, Treatment, and Research Centers

The FCCC recognized the need for a regional network of cancer centers, and similarly, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) realized there was an equal need for a national network of cancer centers that could provide advanced cancer services to all Americans. In the early 1960s, the NCI began to plan for the establishment of top university affiliated cancer centers in all regions of the country. The NCI brought its plan to Congress, and as a result, the National Cancer Act (NCA) was signed into law in 1971.

The NCA provided the legislative and funding authority for the 63 National Cancer Centers in the country today, out of which only 41 have received the NCI designation of ‘Comprehensive Cancer Center' (CCC). An NCI CCC accreditation is only awarded to those Cancer Centers that comply with stringent NCI guidelines that govern the delivery of cancer services, and it is a ranking that is subject to continuing NCI review and subsequent renewals. The FCCC received its CCC accreditation in 1974, and the Philadelphia institution's NCI credential remains in good standing to this day.

Cancer Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center

The FCCC was an early pioneer in cancer research, and it was one of the institutions that was utilized by the NCI as a model during the formulation of its plan for the nationwide network of cancer centers. Cancer research at the FCCC is wide ranging, though, one of the key elements of scientific investigation at the Pennsylvania institution is cancer prevention. To further the cause of reducing the incidence of cancer, the FCCC opened the Research Institute for Cancer Prevention (RICP) in 2000. Located in the new Cancer Prevention Pavilion of the Fox Chase campus, the RICP concentrates its efforts on novel ways, either through education, behavior modification or clinical therapies, to reduce the incidence of cancer in various populations.

The FCCC Partners Program has also succeeded in aiding the research initiatives at the Cancer Center by broadening patient access to a number of the clinical trials that are ongoing at various research facilities located on the FCCC campus. Cancer research lies at the core of all of the NCI Cancer Centers in this country, and the research programs at the FCCC examine 16 separate areas of cancer study.

In February of 2008, the FCCC launched its Keystone Programs for Collaborative Discoveries (KPCD) initiative, an interdisciplinary research program that incorporates a team approach wherein researchers share findings in order to move individual cancer studies forward at an accelerated pace. The first four of these Keystone collaborations are:

Personalized Risk and Prevention: Researchers here seek to discover new ways to identify molecular and genetic behaviors and traits that will serve as accurate predictors of the likely occurrence of cancer in specific populations. This knowledge will allow for the development of novel therapies to prevent, detect, and treat the disease.
Epigenetic and Progenitor Cells: The scientists in this program examine a new way of looking at Oncogenesis or the initial formation of cancerous cells that lead to a malignant mass or tumor. Researchers have long thought that DNA mutations are chiefly responsible for cancer cell formation, though, scientists at the FCCC have discovered that the mechanisms by which genes are switched on and off can also lead to tumor formation.
Blood Cell Development and Cancer: Scientific investigation into the identification of specific genes that allow stem cells to establish specific blood types. It is well known that the same genes that control healthy blood cells are also responsible for the formation of malignant disease, and a better understanding of these genes promise new therapies to treat blood cell cancers such as leukemia or lymphomas.
Personalized Kidney Cancer Therapy: Researchers in this program seek to prolong life for those who have metastatic kidney cancer. The three current drug therapies that have been approved for kidney cancer are known to prolong life, but the disease is inevitably fatal. Bench (laboratory) and clinical (patient involved) researchers in this program study the molecular signals that predict the efficacy of new therapies, knowledge that will accelerate the pace of kidney cancer research.

Patient Care at the Fox Chase Cancer Center

The FCCC treats all forms of adult and pediatric cancers at its main campus hospital location, as well as offering cancer treatment services at its various satellite locations throughout the region. The FCCC is nationally recognized as one the country's leading Cancer Centers where patients are provided with surgical, chemotherapeutic, and radiological treatments for the disease.

A select group of patients at the FCCC will also be eligible to participate in one of the Cancer Center's numerous clinical trials that are designed to test the safety and efficacy of novel and experimental cancer treatment therapies. Additionally, the FCCC offers cancer patients a host of support services such as a full spectrum of counseling services, disease specific support groups, community resource information and more.

Contact the Fox Chase Cancer Center

The main phone number is (215) 728-6900 or call toll-free during business hours (888) FOX-CHASE (888-369-2427), and for a more complete phone listing directory or to learn more about the Fox Chase Cancer Center, please visit their website at www.fccc.edu

Fox Chase Cancer Center
333 Cottman Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19111-2497
Google map for Fox Chase Cancer Center

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