At The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, our mission has always been clear: to end cancer. Achieving this goal requires more than just groundbreaking research and exceptional patient care — it requires collaboration. Toward this aim, we have worked to build a community of health systems, hospitals, and institutions across the country, leveraging our collective experience and expertise to expand access to high-quality cancer care, cutting-edge research and life-saving clinical trials.
Tackling Cancer Care Through Strategic Partnerships
MD Anderson’s cancer network is more than a collection of partners; it’s a deliberate strategy to accelerate the care, control, and ultimately the elimination of cancer through collaborations with local hospitals and health systems throughout the nation. Our national partner community currently includes seven hospitals and health systems that share our commitment to providing the highest-quality, research-driven cancer care.
Our current partners are Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center (Ariz. and Colo.); MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper (N.J.); Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center (Fla.); UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center (Texas); Community Health Network MD Anderson Cancer Center (Ind.); Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center (La.), and RUSH MD Anderson Cancer Center (Ill).
Each of these partnerships is characterized by commitment to a single standard of exceptional patient care as well as deep integration in support of our shared goal of elevating and advancing the national standard for cancer treatment.
We aim to fully incorporate our partners into our MD Anderson community, providing guidance and support; clinical quality assurance and best practice guidelines; and access to our world-leading clinical trials program. Patients receiving care from one of our partners benefit from local expertise backed by MD Anderson’s deep institutional knowledge, evidence-based treatments and innovative research.
Through these partnerships, patients can receive the latest and highest quality cancer treatments closer to home. Their care providers can access MD Anderson experts and research, promoting delivery of next-level cancer care. Beyond individual patient benefits, our partnerships also allow for continuous, bi-directional knowledge sharing and learning across the network, strengthening the ability of hospitals, oncologists, and researchers to meet the evolving needs of patients and providers and continuously improve the quality of care provided.
Accelerating Research and Expanding Access to Clinical Trials
At MD Anderson, research and patient care are inseparably linked, and our clinicians and researchers work seamlessly together to rapidly bring advances from the laboratory to the clinic, back to the laboratory and into the community. For us, collaboration extends beyond patient care — it is the driving force behind our research advancements and clinical trials.
Our work is grounded in pioneering cancer research, with substantial investments in infrastructure and governance to support translating breakthroughs from laboratory benches at MD Anderson to clinical trials opened at partner sites across the country. MD Anderson offers access to its clinical trials and extends clinical research support to all our partner institutions, allowing more hospitals and health systems to provide innovative treatments in their local communities.
Not only does this offer some of the latest and most promising treatment options to more patients, but it also helps speed the evaluation and approval of those therapies — ultimately bringing worthwhile treatments to the broader community more quickly.
A Model for Success: MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper
In 2013, we announced our partnership with Cooper University Health Care in New Jersey, creating a powerful collaboration that benefits patients and physicians alike.
Along with local experts at MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, we conduct collaborative patient case reviews, identify clinical trial opportunities, and work to support enhancement of the clinical research infrastructure. This creates opportunities for patients to benefit from pioneering treatments, innovative clinical trials and insights from nationally recognized specialists.
This collaborative work has helped to advance numerous impactful clinical studies, including:
- A randomized study demonstrating personalized 3D-printed oral stents can improve outcomes and quality of life for patients with head & neck cancers undergoing radiation therapy
- Advancing multiple radiation therapy trials, including the OPAL, SAPHIRe and EXTEND studies, to bring innovative new options for patients while also informing future new standards of care
- Evaluating if select breast cancer patients who have an exceptional response from systemic therapy can avoid additional surgery and radiation
This 12-year partnership also has helped attract top-tier physicians and advanced practice providers inspired by MD Anderson and Cooper University Health Care’s dedication to innovation and excellence in patient care.
By aligning our rigorous quality standards, we benchmark our performance and that of our partners against top institutions nationally to ensure we meet or exceed national standards — helping ensure that these patients will receive the highest quality care. Today, MD Anderson at Cooper stands as the leading cancer center in southern New Jersey, based on patient volume, available services and dedicated physicians. They are trusted, provide high-quality specialty cancer care and access to the latest clinical trials, and are focused on excellent outcomes for every patient they serve.
This stands as one among many examples of how our partners have engaged with MD Anderson to collaboratively advance cancer care and research.
Ending Cancer Through Collaboration
All of MD Anderson’s cancer network partner relationships are built on a shared commitment to innovation, excellence and a unified mission to end cancer. As we continue expanding our partnerships, investing in research and advancing new discoveries, we will remain focused on that mission.
Cancer has no borders, and neither do we. When we work within our collaborative community, we develop new capabilities, increase our collective expertise, and fuel innovative research to better treat and prevent disease, together leveraging the full power of MD Anderson and all our partners to end cancer.
