Spotlight article
Rauscher “Identifies” Four More Comprehensive Centers
TCL Archives | June 21, 1974
[NCI director Frank] Rauscher still has authority to “identify” (the term NCI prefers over “recognize” or “designate”) two more comprehensive centers under the terms of the National Cancer Act of 1971, which would bring the number so identified to 18. When the extension of the act becomes law, the limit of 18 will be removed, and Rauscher expects to eventually name as many as 30.
Best guess for the next two centers would be San Francisco, if organizational problems there can be overcome, plus either Ohio State, the budding consortium in Philadelphia, or one of four programs in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. UCLA is a long-shot possibility.
The distribution of comprehensive centers by location now is:
- Northeast (4) – Boston Children’s, Yale (New Haven), Sloan-Kettering (New York), Roswell Park (Buffalo).
- Mideast (2) – Hopkins-Maryland, Georgetown-Howard.
- South (3) – Duke (Durham), Univ. of Miami, Univ. of Alabama (Birmingham).
- Southwest (1) – M. D. Anderson (Houston).
- Midwest (3) – Illinois (Chicago), Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison), Mayo (Rochester, Minn.).
- Mountain States ( 1) – Colorado (Denver).
- Pacific Coast (2) – Univ. of Southern California(Los Angeles), Hutchinson-Univ. of Washington (Seattle).
The Cancer Letter’s founding editor Jerry Boyd’s predictions were mostly right. The next two centers to receive Comprehensive designation were:
- #17, Fox Chase, aka “the budding consortium in Philadelphia” (The Cancer Letter, Oct. 11, 1974)
- #18, Ohio State (The Cancer Letter, April 16, 1976).
UCLA followed in 1977 (The Cancer Letter, Jan. 7, 1977).
Today, there are 51 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers.
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