The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC), located in San Antonio, Texas, became a center of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in December 2007. The University of Texas System Board of Regents, meeting Dec. 6 in Austin, authorized the acquisition of the CTRC by the Health Science Center. The merger took effect Dec. 17.
The cancer center is now named the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The CTRC at the UT Health Science Center is a patient care, research and educational center of the Health Science Center School of Medicine.
Before the merger, the two institutions were partners in the San Antonio Cancer Institute, one of the three National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Centers in Texas. The San Antonio Cancer Institute name has been discontinued. The CTRC at the UT Health Science Center is now the NCI-designated Cancer Center.
Tyler J. Curiel, M.D., M.P.H., an internationally known medical oncologist and cancer researcher, has been named director of the cancer center. Frank Giles, M.D., M.B., FRCPI, FRCPath, has been promoted to deputy director of the cancer center and continues as director of the CTRC Institute for Drug Development and experimental therapeutics program.
“As historically strong partners, the Health Science Center and CTRC provided quality patient care, research and prevention, and other educational efforts to South Texas and the state,” said Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., president of the UT Health Science Center. “Now as we welcome the CTRC into our Health Science Center family, we possess a bold, singular vision for the future — development of an even greater world-premier cancer center that, backed by the power of academic research discovery, provides better lives to cancer patients and their families.”
The CTRC at the UT Health Science Center serves more than 4.4 million people in the high-growth corridor of South and Central Texas, including San Antonio, Austin, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley. It handles more than 120,000 patient visits each year.
The mission of the CTRC at the UT Health Science Center is to promote interdisciplinary research in cancer-related areas of basic science, clinical research, and cancer prevention and control, and to foster the application of the results of that research in the community setting, especially in the South Texas community.
The CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) is internationally recognized for conducting the largest oncology Phase I clinical research studies program in the world. In a Phase I research study, a new agent for cancer is tested in human patients for the first time. Fifteen of the cancer drugs most recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration underwent development or testing at the IDD.
