Eisenhower Medical Expands Cancer Services

RANCHO MIRAGE, CA – Eisenhower Medical Center and UC San Diego announced a five-year affiliation Thursday that officials say will greatly expand cancer services to patients in the Coachella Valley.

The collaboration will bring in services provided at UCSD's Moores Cancer Center, which patients would previously have to travel outside of the desert to receive.

"This alliance with UC San Diego Health is bringing leading-edge science to the desert, making dramatic new capabilities available locally -- capabilities for which cancer patients used to have to leave town," Eisenhower CEO and President G. Aubrey Serfling said. "It also gives patients another level of confidence that they're getting the best care here in the desert, as well as streamlined access to highly specialized care that's only available at UC San Diego Health, should they need it."

More than 300 clinical trials unavailable elsewhere are being conducted at UC San Diego Health, according to a joint statement released Thursday. The collaboration, effective this month, will also include UC San Diego health experts providing monthly blood and marrow transplant clinics, genetic counseling and more.

"Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center patients will now have access to these cancer clinical trials locally, which is something we couldn't do without a university partner," Serfling said. "Immunotherapy, precision medicine -- this is the new frontier of cancer medicine, and it's going to be available here at Eisenhower."

In addition to expanding service to a wider patient base, hospital leaders also touted the collaborative possibilities of the combined efforts and shared expertise of physicians from both hospitals.

"Our team of physicians and researchers at UC San Diego Health are not only conducting cancer research, they are leading the way in developing and delivering the latest therapies available to people with cancer," UC San Diego Health CEO Patty Maysent said.

"By joining efforts with Eisenhower Health, we can reach more people in Southern California so they too can benefit from the subspecialty expertise and access to immunotherapy as well as genomic and personalized medicine."

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--City News Service/Pixabay image via Free-Photos