Cancer Treatment and Research at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University
The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC) provides advanced cancer education, treatment, and research services at its numerous facilities on the campus of Georgetown University (GU), as well as several satellite institutions in Maryland and Virginia. Named for the famed Green Bay Packers football coach and former patient at the Cancer Center, Vince Lombardi, the medical complex houses approximately 240,000 square feet of treatment and research space.
Federally and privately funded, the LCCC is affiliated with the GU School of Medicine and is chiefly staffed by faculty members from the medical school and other GU scientific, engineering, and humanities departments. The LCCC provides cancer treatment for virtually all forms of cancer while its parallel research initiatives develop new ways to understand and treat the disease. Additionally, a variety of cancer education, prevention, and treatment services are provided to individuals outside the campus setting through numerous community outreach programs.
A National Network of Cancer Education, Treatment, and Research Centers
In 1937, Congress established the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and it is one of 8 departments under the aegis of the National Institutes of Health. Charged with the responsibility of being the nation’s chief cancer research organization, the NCI urged Congress to establish a national network of cancer centers that would be closely affiliated with America’s major universities. In 1971, the National Cancer Act (NCA) was signed into law, and today there are 63 National Cancer Centers located throughout the United States.
Of the 63 Cancer Centers in the nation, only 41 have received the NCI designation of Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC), a distinction governed by stringent guidelines and wide ranging criteria that must be met before a Comprehensive rating is achieved. The LCCC earned its CCC accreditation in 1990—subsequent reviews by the NCI resulted in a renewal of the CCC classification in 2003.
Cancer Research at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
- The LCCC is a major center for cancer research, and for the past 20 years, the Cancer Center has been instrumental in developing the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cancer preventing vaccine. Dr. Richard Schlegel’s LCCC research on the Human Papillomavirus resulted in the development of the cervical cancer preventing vaccine marketed as Cervarix, the delivery of which is now widely physician recommended to young women and teenaged girls.
- The LCCC was responsible for the first clinical trials for cancer preventing vaccines, and the Cancer Center’s Dr. John Marshall is currently conducting a Phase I clinical trial of the TRICOM vaccine, which utilizes the introduction of a live virus to deliver four genes that hold the promise of immune system stimulation and the increased production of cancer fighting T-cells. Phase 2 and 3 of these trials are ongoing.
- The NCI recently awarded the LCCC with a $17 million research and development contract to study alternative tobacco products in order to determine if these products offer a decreased health risk. These alternative tobacco products include lower nicotine content cigarettes, nicotine containing mints, as well as a variety of other nicotine delivery products.
The LCCC conducts numerous other cancer related research initiatives that are categorized as follows:
- Breast Cancer Program at the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research
- Cancer Control Program
- Molecular Targets & Developmental Therapeutics Program
- Radiation Biology & DNA Repair Program
- Pediatric Cancer Research Program
- Neuro-oncology and Childhood Cancers Program
- Drug Discovery and Development Program
Patient Care at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Patients at the LCCC receive cancer treatment at a variety of departments within the GU Medical Center and GU Hospital. The Georgetown School of Medicine provides the Cancer Center with oncology specialists who treat all forms of cancer, and the LCCC is also widely recognized as a leader in advanced forms of treatment for solid tumor and adult and pediatric hematologic cancers. As part of the Cancer Center’s comprehensive delivery of advanced cancer services, the following treatment, education, and prevention programs are offered:
* The Nina Hyde Resource Room: Located adjacent to the waiting area of the Lombardi Clinic, the Resource Room provides patients and their families with access to a variety of printed, audio, video, and online cancer information materials.
- Palliative Care and Symptom Management: This program is designed to provide cancer patients with highly individualized attention to the issues of pain management and symptoms control. Physicians and nurses work closely with patients to ensure maximum patient comfort and quality of life during the course of their treatments.
- Nutritional Support: Nutritionists who specialize in oncology care work with patients to ensure a proper diet from foods that are both appetizing and healthy.
- Social Work Services: A host of expert social workers at the LCCC provide patients and their families with wide ranging support services designed to ease the psychological, emotional, and logistical burden associated with cancer treatments.
- Breast Cancer Consultation Group: This is a multidisciplinary approach to aiding patients who have early stage breast cancer. Patients work closely with a wide variety of medical professionals, all of whom are charged with the responsibility of guiding patients through the oftentimes overwhelming maze of breast cancer treatment options.
- Pastoral Care: The LCCC offers an extensive clerical staff who offer spiritual counseling to cancer patients and their families.
- Ethics Consultation: The treatment of cancer can involve certain ethical considerations, such as prolongation of life through extraordinary methods, living wills and a patient’s right to die, transplant procedures, etc. The LCCC provides patients with access to cancer ethics experts who offer patients and families guidance on cancer related ethical issues.
- Genetic Counseling: A patient’s genetic makeup can significantly increase the risk of certain types of cancer, and genetic experts at the LCCC offer patients and families advice on how to best minimize or manage these risks.
Contact the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
The main operator phone number is (202) 444 -4000, and for a more complete phone listing directory or to learn more about the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, please visit their website at http://lombardi.georgetown.edu/.
Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
at Georgetown University
3800 Reservoir Road, NW
Washington, D.C. 20057
Google map for Lombardi Cancer Center
