SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new center at UC Davis is one of several new initiatives at the university designed to make cancer care more available to everyone.
"For many years, there was this impression that cancer was simply based on the genetic code and not the zip code of the patient," said Dr. Lucky Lara, director of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
He said neighborhood, lifestyle and even how much money people make can be a matter of life or death when it comes to finding and treating cancer. It's why the center recently launched the Center for Advancing Cancer Health Equity, which is focused on reducing health disparities.
"We have data from our Northern California region, where we can pinpoint the areas where breast cancer screening are particularly challenged," said Dr. Lara.
Dr. Lara and his team are working to deploy more intensive cancer screenings to underserved women. Part of their mission includes the new Center for Experimental Therapeutics in Cancer.
"Clinical trials are one way we can help solve the cancer problem because that's where new approaches and new treatments are being tested," said Dr. Lara.
The idea is to create more effective, less toxic cancer therapies right at the university from start to finish.
"If you ask people a generation or two ago, they would routinely tell you that a diagnosis of cancer was the end," Dr. Lara said. "What we know now is it is a disease that can be survived, even those with what we would call incurable cancer can enjoy many years of high quality, productive life," Dr. Lara said.
Dr. Lara also said the center is going to implement a mammography van program, which refers to mobile breast cancer screening. It would come to women who live in rural and underserved areas, who can struggle with transportation or access to health care. The could lead to earlier cancer detections and life-saving treatments.
Medical experts at UC Davis are urging people to schedule their regular screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies, because they said they are seeing people with late-stage cancer who skipped screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Call the general cancer center hotline to set up an appointment is 800-770-9261.
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