Northside Hospital announced the appointment of Dr. Guilherme Cantuaria as Medical Director and Principal Investigator for the National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP). In April of last year, Northside Hospital was among 14 new sites chosen by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, to join a national network of community cancer centers offering expanded research opportunities and state-of-the-art cancer care.
The NCCCP Medical Directorship and Principal Investigator role is a vital component to the NCCCP Program. Cantuaria will have oversight of cancer program activities, including clinical management, community outreach and disparities, clinical trials, information technology, biospecimen initiatives, quality of patient care, and survivorship and palliative care. As a board certified gynecologic oncologist with over ten years of experience in the specialty, Cantauria has held a variety of leadership positions and served as a Principal Investigator for Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG).
“The Hospital’s participation in the NCCCP network, affords the hospital, physicians and patients greater access to leading-edge cancer care services (from prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship),”said Cantuaria.
The NCCCP Program studies ways for more patients to have access to the latest, evidence-based care close to where they live. For a variety of reasons, many cancer patients cannot commute to major academic medical centers for treatment. In fact, 85 percent of patients are diagnosed, and receive at least their first course of treatment, at a community hospital.
NCCCP Centers are addressing ways to reduce healthcare disparities, improve access to clinical trials, improve overall quality of care, promote an infrastructure to collect high-quality biospecimens such as blood and tissue samples for research, and link with national computer networks that support research. The Centers also work to improve survivorship, palliative care services, and patient advocacy.
