By Winthrop Quigley
Journal Staff Writer
Internationally renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center will begin providing cancer treatment in Albuquerque in April under a deal struck with Presbyterian Healthcare Services.
The agreement, signed Wednesday, calls for Houston-based M.D. Anderson to deliver radiation oncology care at Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital in the Northeast Heights. Presbyterian will invest $3.5 million to upgrade a Kaseman clinic and to add new equipment.
Part of the University of Texas medical system, M.D. Anderson has been ranked one of the top two cancer hospitals in the nation every year since 1990 by U.S. News & World Report.
Its radiation oncology division has established four other satellite clinics and is planning two more, but all of those are in the Houston area, said Jim Cox, M.D. Anderson radiation oncology division head.
M.D. Anderson has hired a board-certified radiation oncologist, Ramesh Gopal, to provide treatment at Kaseman. Gopal, an M.D. Anderson-trained physician, has been working in Indiana. Ten current Presbyterian employees will become M.D. Anderson employees and will staff the clinic.
The clinic, to be called the M.D. Anderson Radiation Treatment Center at Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital, should be capable of treating from 18 to 35 patients a day, Cox said. M.D. Anderson plans to add more staff in Albuquerque as demand increases, Cox told the Journal in a telephone interview from Houston.
Patients will be referred to the center by their own physicians. Presbyterian will handle billing for services.
Presbyterian CEO Jim Hinton told the Journal the M.D. Anderson relationship would not replace existing arrangements Presbyterian has with local radiation oncologists or with the University of New Mexico Cancer Research and Treatment Center.
"Unfortunately, cancer is a growing business," Hinton said. He said new cancer cases will increase 23 percent nationally by 2010, partly because of the nation's aging population and partly because improved care for other diseases means patients survive long enough to develop cancers later in life.
"In our broad network, it shouldn't be viewed as a zero-sum game between existing providers with a new competitor," Hinton said. "Unfortunately, the pie is growing."
At the same time, Cox said, medical research, much of it done at M.D. Anderson, is finding new ways to use radiation more effectively against cancer, either in conjunction with surgery or chemotherapy or on its own.
Radiation is especially suited to some prostate and breast cancers and it is being used much more often than in the past to treat lung, head and neck, and esophagus cancer, Cox said.
Hinton said the University of New Mexico's cancer center and M.D. Anderson have been discussing collaborations and that Presbyterian and UNM are discussing ways the two systems can jointly purchase especially expensive cancer care technology.
UNM cancer center CEO Cheryl L. Willman could not be reached by telephone for comment Wednesday.
When Presbyterian approached M.D. Anderson several months ago to propose a cancer treatment relationship, "we decided this was a special opportunity to do something in collaboration with a strong partner that would not be replicated all over the place," Cox said.
"Our strategy as an organization is to bring nationally excellent health care to New Mexico," Hinton said. "We felt an arrangement with M.D. Anderson would really create choices in the marketplace."
Presbyterian Health Plan members "will still have access to private medical oncologists and radiation oncology services, as well as access to the University of New Mexico," he said. "This brings a third, arguably very strong alternative to Albuquerque."
Along with the UNM cancer center, M.D. Anderson is one of 40 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer research and treatment centers. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Founded in 1944.
Spent more than $342 million in 2005 on research.
Houston campus includes a 512-bed in-patient facility, two research buildings and an out-patient clinic building.
Will treat 74,000 people this year.
Employs 1,272 physicians and scientists as faculty members.
More than 4,100 students are in training.
Ranked among the nation's top two cancer hospitals each year since 1990 by U.S. News & World Report.
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