Thomasville’s Archbold Memorial Hospital is now a partner with Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute. Officials at the South Georgia hospital expect that relationship to make the very latest cancer-fighting tools available to cancer patients in this area.
Dr. Teresa Coleman is the medical director of clinical trials at Archbold’s Singletary Oncology Center. She said the entire concept of what cancer is has changed in recent years.
“We think that cancer is at least a two-stage process; something has to go wrong in your DNA to set you up for cancer. And then after you begin developing cancer, your immune system has to fail you and let the cancer through; let the cancer grow.”
That updated understanding of what the disease is, Dr. Coleman said, has also led to enhanced methods of attacking cancer.
“The world is moving away from chemotherapy and now it’s all about immunotherapy and targeted therapy.”
But many of the drugs associated with these therapies are so new, they are available only to patients involved in clinical trials. Archbold’s Singletary Oncology Center has access to a limited number of such trials on its own. But Dr. Coleman said her facility has been looking to expand that by affiliating with a larger partner; preferably one with big-time clout in the field.
“It got started about a year ago. We wanted access to cooperative group trials and typically you can’t get access for every center all over the country so you have to join with a larger center so that you can get your patients access to that because there are certain requirements.”
Then the word arrived that Archbold’s center would enter into a partnership with the famous Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
“We were thrilled beyond belief!”, Coleman exclaimed.
For Dr. Josh Simmons, associate director of clinical trials at Archbold, the number of clinical trials available to the area’s cancer patients will go from nine to more than 250.
“This will allow them access to some of these cutting-edge medications before FDA approval and these medications do have the chance to change the standard of care and therefore getting earlier access to these is critical to some of these patients who may have no further options.”
Another important facet of this Emory partnership, explained Dr. Coleman, is that these advanced treatment options are close to home.
“Because of this partnership agreement, we can open up some of their trials in our center so that our patients don’t have to travel.”
And the bottom-line for patients?
“Studies show that patients who participate in clinical trials do have better outcomes. We’re not really sure if that’s because they get closer monitoring or better follow-up care or because they have access to better, cutting-edge drugs, but it is variable,” Coleman said.