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Hoag Cancer Center's Survival Rates Sharply Exceed National Percentages
Every cancer patient in America who walks into a hospital for treatment is seeking one thing.
Survival.
That fact goes a long way in explaining why so many patients walk into Hoag Cancer Center. More than 2,300 new patients a year in all, venture to Newport Beach from points across the county, across the state and even across the nation and the world.
These patients know that, according to the latest figures, Hoag’s five-year survival rates have soared to all-time highs and now outpace national percentages by a full 10 points.
The National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program recently reported that, on a nationwide basis, patients diagnosed with invasive cancer between 1992 and 1998 have a five-year relative survival rate (adjusted for other age-related non-cancer causes of death) of 62 percent.
However, using the same formula for statistical analysis, Hoag Cancer Center has relative five-year survival rates of 72 percent.
“This is the highest five-year survival rate for our patients in the history of Hoag Cancer Center,” explains medical director Robert O. Dillman, M.D. “It’s also the greatest margin by which our survival rates have exceeded SEER’s national percentage.”
Survival statistics this sweeping cannot happen without a comprehensive approach to treating cancer. “Survival rates are an excellent indicator of quality,” says Dr. Dillman. “There are several components of care at Hoag that, collectively, have lifted our survival rates to such highs. You simply cannot have a weak link in the system and achieve survival rates this high.”
At Hoag, superior cancer treatment starts with great technology for cancer detection that enables Hoag doctors to make diagnoses at an earlier stage, when cancer is most curable. In addition, a high-quality diagnostic radiology team provides precise data regarding the stage of the cancer, so doctors can tailor treatments accordingly.
Hoag is home to a team of oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons who work together to manage each patient’s care. The cancer center also hosts specialized tumor boards for many types of cancer. The boards are comprised of experts from all disciplines needed, who review cancer cases from all angles to make sure the latest thinking in cancer treatment is applied.
Hoag Cancer Center provides progressive treatments through its cell biology lab, where clinical research is put into practice and patients gain access to futuristic therapies that help the body’s own immune system fight cancer.
But there’s more.
Hoag offers a complementary care program that is an industry model for treating the whole person and not just the disease. It features support services such as support groups, counseling, patient-focused fitness classes like yoga, and unique workshops such as art therapy.
When you put those components together, you have a cancer center that is truly one of the best places in America for cancer treatment.
In fact, Hoag Cancer Center’s survival statistics surpass many of the cancer centers that are mentioned on those annual lists compiled by such magazines as U.S. News and World Report. However, Hoag isn’t considered for those lists because it does not receive federal grants for research and does not have a federally supported oncology-training program.
Still, Orange County residents are well aware of the tremendous resource they have right here in their own backyard.
“When we opened Hoag Cancer Center, our mandate was to provide world-class cancer care in a community environment,” explains Dr. Dillman. “These statistics continue to represent the most compelling evidence that we’ve accomplished this goal.”
That evidence is further supported by the thousands of survivors who continue to lead productive lives some five years after turning to Hoag Cancer Center for care.
For more about Hoag Cancer Center, please call 949/7-CANCER (722-6237).
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