When President Barack Obama called for a national moon shot to end cancer, the MD Anderson community and our patients cheered. For nearly 75 years, cancer has been our priority, and we are heartened to see it elevated to a true national priority.
Annual Report 2015 : Bold advances require the latest technology
Bold advances require the latest technology
To meet a growing demand for clinical, diagnostic and support services, ground was broken in 2013 for The Pavilion, an eight-story, 184,800-square-foot facility connected to the Main Building.
Photo: Nick de la Torre
After more than 800,000 hours of construction work, the structure was completed in November 2015.
Among its many features, MD Anderson’s newest facility houses state-of-the-art surgical and interventional radiology suites that will allow MD Anderson to treat a greater number of patients at the highest level.
“The Pavilion is just an incredible facility,” says Ronald DePinho, M.D., president. “It’s the most advanced infrastructure for surgery and interventional radiology in the world.”
The building’s six operating rooms, including one for intraoperative computerized tomography (IOCT), will open this spring. These ORs are designed to allow multiple teams to work simultaneously, aided by the latest innovations in navigation and image-guided technologies.
In the IOCT suite, a custom surgical table was created to optimize the patient’s position so that a CT scanner can move on rails and scan the patient in real time during surgery.
“This real-time imaging leads to a more effective and accurate surgery for the patient,” says Laurence Rhines, M.D., professor of Neurosurgery.
In addition to new operating rooms, The Pavilion houses a 27,000-square-foot Interventional Radiology facility that will allow multidisciplinary procedures and operations to be performed using robotic image guidance, reduced radiation doses for patients undergoing interventional procedures and real-time consultation with Pathology.
“The Pavilion is a great milestone in MD Anderson’s history,” says Bob Brigham, senior vice president for Hospital and Clinics. “Every time we get a chance to do an expansion like this, we do it not just to get larger and accommodate more, we do it to push the boundaries and transform the practice.”
The Pavilion serves as the new Main Building entrance and features state-of-the-art surgical suites, a new home for Interventional Radiology, an expanded Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and a larger space for sterile processing.
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In 2015, surgical history was made
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Curing leukemia without debilitating side effects
Jamie Whittington has an aggressive form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but you’d never know it.
An immunotherapy drug to bolster a T cell surge
MD Anderson Melanoma Moon Shot researchers are combining two immunotherapies for the first time to double-team melanoma that has spread to other organs and resisted all forms of treatment.
In the face of cancer
It’s a phrase that describes our patients, who, faced with a disease that is unpredictable and unforgiving, remain strong and determined.
It describes our doctors, researchers, educators and staff, who are relentless in their drive to stop a plague that robs us all of friends, family and loved ones.
He took on the mystery of metastasis. Now he’s taking on brain cancer.
Few scientists have devoted as much of their career to understanding how cancer spreads as Isaiah Fidler, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Graduating to big things before returning to MD Anderson
When Joya Chandra, Ph.D., joined the faculty of MD Anderson’s pediatrics department in 2002, she felt an immediate kinship with the researchers, clinicians and, especially, with the students.
Where rivers of research and clinical data converge into one pool
A simple yet unprecedented goal drives the big data efforts of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program: to have every patient contribute to and benefit from the cancer
center’s research.
Bottom line: Converting discoveries into new treatments at a faster rate
When a clinical trial for a new breast cancer drug launched recently, researchers estimated it would take at least two years to enroll the 20 patients needed to make the trial a success. However, within four months, half the patients had already enrolled — and the drug worked for all 10.
Outsmarting cancer with genetic testing
Teresa Hall’s visit to a gastroenterologist three years ago wasn’t the first time she’d sought help for troubling symptoms.
Are you at high risk for pancreatic cancer?
A new clinic to identify and monitor those at high risk for developing pancreatic cancer continues to expand after opening last year.
We’re creating partnerships to detect a deadly cancer earlier
Building on MD Anderson research, a new company named Codiak Biosciences has formed to create therapeutic and diagnostic products using exosomes — small parts of cells that break away and float around the body.
Breast cancer screening guidelines aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution
It’s clear that breast cancer screenings save lives. But exactly when women at average risk of developing breast cancer should begin screening is much less clear.
