cancer

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center broke ground on the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Building for Personalized Cancer Care on Wed., Nov. 16, making way for the 12-story, 615,000 square foot building. The Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation gave MD Anderson a $150 million transformational grant in 2011 to accelerate the pace of personalized cancer therapies and pancreatic cancer research. From this grant, $100 million will be used to build the Zayed Building for...

Cancer patients can and should get organized, says professional organizer Janice Simon, project director in the Office of Academic Affairs in the Department of Faculty Development . Though collecting and sorting paperwork may seem time-consuming and overwhelming, consolidating personal documents, health records and questions for doctors benefits both patient and physician by reducing appointment lengths and preventing confusion. Going digital may also be a valuable strategy for staying...

Richard Wang was a pediatric cancer patient when he was younger. After a year of treatment, he went into remission and is currently cancer-free. After high school, like many young Americans, he joined the military. After serving four years as a nurse medic, he decided to get his bachelor's degree and Registered Nurse certification. Upon completion, he applied for a job at MD Anderson and began working as a full-time nurse. Wang is one of many MD Anderson employees who served in the...

MD Anderson uses different types of robots to improve the safety and efficiency in patient care. Pharmacy has been taking advantage of robot technology since 1998. The first outpatient robot was installed in the outpatient pharmacy on Floor 2 of the Main Building. Now, all three outpatient pharmacies use the ScriptPro SP 200 prescription dispensing system. MD Anderson's outpatient pharmacies dispense approximately 1,300 prescriptions a day. According to Lori Bertrand, manager, Pharmacy...

An unexpected and unsettling diagnosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNET), a rare pancreatic cancer, brought Bill Settle from Corpus Christi, Texas, back to his hometown of Houston for treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Since MD Anderson's sole focus is cancer, our physicians have extensive experience in the therapies and procedures used to treat every type of cancer and to tailor the treatment to each patient. Our expertise brings many patients here, some from around the...

Clinicians who care for elderly patients see a lot of cancer. That goes double for Holly Holmes, M.D., the only practicing geriatrician at MD Anderson. She explains how a geriatrician, or any clinician, might counsel an elderly patient diagnosed with cancer. She tells us what these patients and their caregivers should consider when choosing a treatment. It may depend on the patient's "functional age," she says. And she answers the nagging question: How can elders work with their...