Hollings Cancer Center Medical University of South Carolina Charleston, South Carolina
The Hollings Cancer Center (HCC) was founded in 1993 and became an NCI-designated cancer center in 2009. Located at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), HCC brings together more than 100 faculty researchers from 23 departments in several colleges at MUSC. The mission of the Center is to reduce the cancer burden in South Carolina through the highest quality patient care, research, professional education, and cancer prevention programs with a focus on reaching underserved populations.
The Center seeks to create an environment where research is fostered from a basic concept to a clinical/community intervention. HCC teams of investigators work in five formal research programs: Lipid Signaling in Cancer, Cancer Genes and Molecular Regulation, Developmental Cancer Therapeutics, Cancer Immunology, and Cancer Prevention and Control. Research and clinical care are conducted in the seven-story Hollings building and other places across the MUSC campus, as well as the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. Completed in 2011 were two new facilities, the Drug Discovery Building and the Cancer Genomics and Bio Engineering Building.
Cancer treatment at HCC is offered through programs on blood and lymph node cancer, bone marrow and stem cell transplant, brain and spine cancer, breast cancer care, children’s cancer, gamma knife center, gastrointestinal cancer, genitourinary cancer, gynecologic cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, melanoma and skin cancer, and sarcoma. Teams of specialists from a variety of clinical disciplines come together to create an individualized treatment plan for each patient in one location, ensuring coordination of care and increased convenience.
Support services are offered to patients both during and after treatment at the Center. Patient support ranges from genetic counseling through psychological support services and the patient/family resource center. Survivorship programs address the physical and emotional needs of survivors and their loved ones.
Outreach to the community also occurs through education. HCC is active in emphasizing the importance of cancer prevention, early detection, and timely treatment. The Center has a mobile health unit providing digital mammography and other cancer screening opportunities to 12 rural counties along the coast.
HCC also trains the next generation of basic, clinical, and prevention researchers through an array of graduate and post-doctoral training educational programs for MUSC students and health care providers.
* This profile was provided by the Hollings Cancer Center.
