Alliance can help cancer patients

For patients battling cancer in Hawaii, often the best defense has been to travel to the mainland for treatment. So it’s welcome news that The Queen’s Medical Center will become a member of the MD Anderson Cancer Center Network and be piped into the latest clinical trials and research.

There is no place like home when undergoing a treatment regimen and the “goal of the program is to get people treated in the best possible way where they live and have their family support network,” said Thomas Burke, executive vice president of the MD Anderson Cancer Network.

For the Queen’s Cancer Center to partner with such a highly regarded network makes good sense. The network is part of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, ranked No. 1 in the “Best Hospitals” survey published annually by U.S. News and World Report.

The network also does more than 1,000 clinical trials on its main campus in Houston. And what’s better still is the MD Anderson Cancer Network would select trials that would be appropriate for patients seen in Hawaii and offer that locally rather than have them travel to the mainland.

It’s hard to see any negatives in this three-year partnership, but it raises the question: What about the University of Hawaii Cancer Center?

That Queen’s-UH coupling would seem to have been the perfect match: A well-regarded local hospital partnering with the only designated National Cancer Institute facility within 2,500 miles of Hawaii’s cancer patients, hospitals and practitioners.

But the UH Cancer Center just can’t seem to pull itself together and in August hired a consultant — at a cost of $250,800 — to develop a business plan. A UH task group earlier this year reported that the university’s Cancer Center is running over budget by approximately $9.5 million a year and could run out of reserve funds in a few years.

Still, the interim director of the UH Cancer Center remains upbeat in light of the Queen’s-MD Anderson announcement.

“We are aware of the new relationship of The Queen’s Medical Center with MD Anderson to strengthen its cancer care services,” Dr. Jerris Hedges, who also is dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, said in an email. “The UH Cancer Center will continue to work with The Queen’s Medical Center and other members of the Hawaii Cancer Consortium to bring the latest in clinical studies addressing cancer to Hawaii. The NCI-designated Cancer Center’s clinical trials have provided marked advances in cure, life extension, care and quality of life to cancer patients in Hawaii.”

Under former Director Michele Carbone, the UH Cancer Center pursued building a new, $100 million facility in Kakaako using a faulty business plan, which has saddled the center with an $8 million annual mortgage payment it can’t afford.

Still, the UH Cancer Center is among 68 NCI-designated centers in the country, which gives UH and fellow members access to about 80 percent of the federal agency’s $4.8 billion annual budget for research grants. Hedges has said the designation “helps bring lifesaving cancer treatments to Hawaii through clinical trials and reduces the necessity of residents to travel to the mainland for care.”

While both cancer centers share the same life-saving goal, for now it appears the Queen’s focus is on partnering with a proven network that does not face an uncertain financial future — and that makes the most sense for patients with life-threatening conditions.