It’s official. CTRC retains national elite Cancer Center designation

In September, the National Cancer Institute renewed the Cancer Therapy & Research Center’s official Cancer Center designation. An NCI Cancer Center designation is given to elite cancer centers, of which there are only four in Texas.

To qualify for the national designation, CTRC faculty and staff had to meet and exceed strict guidelines, such as continuing to make groundbreaking scientific discoveries, conducting innovative clinical trials, training the next generation of cancer doctors and reducing the burden of cancer for the people of San Antonio and South Texas.

“We are elated with these achievements—mainly because they help our patients,” said CTRC Director Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D. “Every conversation I have with a patient who is fighting cancer, or with a family member who is soaking up every word and asking questions so that person can fight alongside the loved one, is profoundly humbling. They are the real fighters, and we are so proud to serve them.”

The CTRC serves a fast-growing area with a population of more than 4.4 million people in the region of Central and South Texas that includes Austin, San Antonio, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley. With many Spanish speakers in its service area and higher rates of liver and cervical cancer along its borders, the CTRC has focused its mission on bilingual prevention education and outreach, collaboration with border physicians and cutting-edge clinical trials for cancer.