The Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare recently celebrated a decade providing innovative cancer treatment, research and support.
The $25 million center, which opened in December 2001 as the first comprehensive cancer center in Phoenix, took a new approach to cancer treatment: an initiative designed by cancer survivors for cancer survivors.“Planning for the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center involved casting a very broad net. We listened, we learned, especially from those touched by cancer,” says Tom Sadvary, president & CEO of Scottsdale Healthcare. “The feedback we heard inspired everyone involved to take personalized care to a higher level than ever before.”
The center runs through the contributions of community donors and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable trust. It is known to offer what other centers often can’t: a compilation of nearly all services needed by those affected by cancer of everything from trials and diagnosis to treatments, prevention and support services in on location at Scottsdale Healthcare.“The amazing passion and enthusiasm that helped create our center continues to this day,” Sadvary says. “New discoveries allow treatments to target specific genes, giving hope that one day soon we will indeed bridge the gap between care and cure,”
Services at the center include comprehensive care with state-of-the-art services and equipment,
information and access to ongoing clinical trials and new treatment options, access to cancer-related information, education and support, a cancer registry that collects data on cancer, treatment and results, and offers lifelong patient follow-up and so much more.“Our expert physicians, staff members and volunteers truly know what it takes to ‘care’ for people. We collaborate with our community’s leading physicians and many of the world’s top scientists, so patients no longer need to travel outside the Valley for specialized cancer treatment,” says Lindsay Thomas, director of Oncology Services. “In fact, patients from across the U.S. and abroad are now referred to the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center.”
Looking back on the decade of quality service, we’re highlighting some of the center’s most notable achievements.
Cancer Care Coordinators
The first of its kind. This free “nurse navigator” service of Master-trained registered nurses with advanced expertise in oncology are specially trained to help answer questions, provide guidance and facilitate personalized care to patients and their families. The services, today, are so widely known and accepted that it is now duplicated in hospitals across the country.
The Firsts
Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center holds many notable firsts throughout the Valley.
-They were the first in Phoenix to offer Phase I clinical trials of investigational cancer drugs, including more active Phase I clinical trials than any other cancer center in Arizona.
-The center was the first in Phoenix with a cancer genetic risk program, a cancer exercise program, a music and art therapy program, a cancer information library open to the public, and a retail boutique dedicated to meeting the needs of cancer patients.
-They were also the first in Arizona to perform daVinci robot-assisted surgery for treatment of prostate cancer as well as the first in Arizona with the Novalis shaped-beam radiation therapy system for tumors generally untreatable by surgery.
Notoriety
The Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center was named primary clinical research site for the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) as well as the co-lead site for the Stand Up to Cancer pancreatic cancer research Dream Team, noted under the leadership of world-renowned oncologist and cancer researcher Daniel Von Hoff, MD, the chief scientific officer for the center.
Looking back on past achievements, successes and lives bettered by the center, the participants behind the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center look on to the future of the center and their goals of fighting and treating these heartbreaking diseases. “We know there is much work yet to be done in the battle with cancer,” Sadvary says. “Our job is to give each person who walks through our doors the tools to help them through their battle, to help keep life in the moments.”
