Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center Clinical Care a Statewide Enterprise
LSU Health's Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center is truly a statewide cancer center, one without walls or a single specific location you can pin on a map. While most of the researchers are housed at 1700 Tulane Avenue, the clinical care, clinical trials and outreach span the entire state.
As part of the LSU Health Sciences Center, the Cancer Center shares the mission of educating future healthcare providers and scientists, patient care, research and community outreach.
It is this lack of a single physical address that drives the Cancer Center's ability to reach patients where they live, eliminating the need for a patient to travel from Tallulah, Louisiana to New Orleans to participate in a potentially life-saving clinical trial.
“It has been known by data from the Center for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute that the incidence and mortality for many cancers is higher in the African American population in Louisiana. Understanding the causes and finding possible solutions for this major health disparity has been a major focus of our research. As part of this we at LSU Health in New Orleans, teamed up with three other health organizations to create the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network (a program funded by the NCI Community Oncology Research Program) to ensure that all cancer patients in our state, and especially those in minority and underserved communities had access to cutting edge clinical trials and clinical studies,” said Augusto Ochoa, MD, Director of the LSU Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center.
By joining forces with LSU-Shreveport, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and the Ochsner
Medical Center, patients can enroll in the most advanced clinical trials available
today at more than 48 different locations throughout the state, closer to their home,
families and work. 
Eileen Mederos, RN has served as the NCORP program manager since the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network formed in 2014, as part of a grant funded by the National Cancer Institute.
“Being part of the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network has really increased the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center's ability to improve patient outcomes by expanding access to prevention and treatment studies as well as community outreach and education programs,” she said.
Mederos serves as a vital resource to both physicians and patients seeking to participate in clinical trials.
“Right now, we are enrolling patients in more than 419 clinical trials - offering education and hope to thousands of our fellow citizens of all ages, from children through adults,” Mederos said.
The value in having a cancer center without walls has been demonstrated during times of natural disasters and, most currently, a pandemic.
“Each site can act independently, but the network can be activated in emergencies such as hurricanes. If a patient in New Orleans is displaced and has to be seen at a participating clinic in Shreveport, we can make that happen,” she said. “Although Covid did not displace our patients, we were similarly able to adapt and utilize telehealth and other virtual health systems to continue treatments for patients.”
Mederos said the WISDOM study (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk) is an example of a clinical trial that is open to all women.
“This study is all online; it is a virtual study. All women can participate and geography is removed as a barrier to participation,” she said.
The study seeks to determine whether a personalized approach to screening versus annual mammograms is better to detect breast cancer. The national study is seeking 100,000 women of all ages, with the Cancer Center hoping to enroll 5,000 women from across the state.
Hematology/Oncology Section Chief Agustin Garcia, MD, is leading the state's effort of this nationally-recognized study.
“Over the last 50 years we have made great progress in the care of breast cancer. The use of screening mammography has saved the lives of millions of women. But the way we screen can probably be better. While women are different in their risk for developing cancer, right now we still use a ‘one size fits all' approach. The WISDOM study is trying to find out if a personalized approach to breast cancer screening is a better approach,” Dr. Garcia said.
“In the oncology community it is widely recognized that all cancer patients should have the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial. The progress we have made in breast cancer care is because millions of women have agreed to participate in a trial,” he added. “Clearly, not everyone may want to participate in a trial but everyone should have the opportunity to do so if they wish. Unfortunately, clinical trials are not always offered in your community. WISDOM recognizes this and was designed so that women can continue to receive their care in their community with their regular provider while still having the opportunity to help improve the care of breast cancer.”
Because all women can participate, LSU Health employees are encouraged to enroll (https://www.thewisdomstudy.org/).
Mederos said other trials offer hope to those diagnosed with bladder, bone, brain, colorectal, gallbladder, GI, gynecological, head and neck, kidney, lung, prostate, pancreas, and urinary tract cancers. Trials also exist for lymphoma, melanoma and leukemia.