Welcome to the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center

Cancer is predicted to take 84 million lives over the next decade. In Louisiana alone, cancer is responsible for 180 deaths a week. The researchers and physicians of the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center (SSSCC) are working to change these statistics. In 1990, Dr. Mervin Trail established the SSSCC as a place where specialists with different backgrounds could work together to combat this disease and improve the way cancer patients are evaluated and treated.

Since then, the SSSCC has grown to include 100 researchers and physians. Its programs provide communities with information on how to reduce their chances of developing cancer, help people detect cancer at early, treatable stages of the disease, diagnose and treat cancer patients, and further cancer research.

Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program
In 1993, the SSSCC established a Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program (MB-CCOP) to provide minority and other cancer patients with opportunities to participate in state-of-the-art clinical trials. One of only thirteen MB-CCOPs currently funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), this program is delivering potentially life-saving care to patients across central and southern Louisiana.

The River Region Cancer Screening and Early Detection Center, Sorrento, Louisiana
Managed and staffed by the SSSCC, the mission of this clinic is reduce the incidence and mortality of advanced-stage cancer in rural and underserved Louisiana communities. Founded in 2000 by the former Senator Louis Lambert, this clinic provides outreach services and screenings to individuals who are uninsured or underinsured. Last year, the clinic performed 2,500 screenings for breast, cervical, colon, prostate, rectal and skin cancer.

Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) to Mentor Translational Researchers in Louisiana
Dr. Augusto Ochoa, who serves as SSSCC director, has established a Center of Research Excellence called "Mentoring Translational Researchers in Louisiana." Funded by a $10.6 million grant by the National Institutes of Health, this initiative provides mentorship to promising junior investigators who are conducting research with a translational benefit to patient care. With a focus on understanding the immunobiology of disease, this program is cultivating a group of successful researchers in immunobiology and the immunopathology of cancer and chronic diseases. 

The SSSCC is part of the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium (LCRC), which includes the Tulane University Health Sciences Center Cancer Center and Xavier University. Through the LCRC, the SSSCC receives a portion of the tax on all cigarettes sold in Louisiana. Approximately $10 million per year is being invested in the Consortium for the purpose of obtaining an NCI-designated, cross-institutional Comprehensive Cancer Center for residents of New Orleans and the surrounding regions.