When Gary Hinze began coughing up blood after working out, his doctor sent him to an oncologist near his home in Grass Valley, California. The diagnosis: Stage IIIA lung cancer. “He pretty much told me I was a goner,” says Hinze, then 62. A recommendation from another local doctor sent Hinze and his wife, Sandie, to the UC-Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center in Sacramento, a couple hours away. “The team at UC-Davis didn’t give up,” says Hinze. An unusual combination of chemotherapy and radiation shrank the tumor to the point that “the doctors had trouble finding it on an x-ray,” and the diseased part of his lung could be removed. Today, the part-time musician and local TV variety show host has been cancer-free for three years. “Those doctors saved my life,” he says.
Hinze tapped into the type of state-of-the-art expertise available at the nation’s major cancer centers – and not just to people who live nearby. In particular, the 68 hospitals designated as national cancer centers by the National Cancer Institute (cancer.gov), which are supported by taxpayer dollars, are a rich resource for patients everywhere. Someone diagnosed with a particularly complex or advanced cancer may benefit greatly by traveling for treatment to a team that has had a wealth of experience with that tumor and is on the cutting edge of research. Each facility’s website makes it easy to request an appointment. “Most people who come to our hospital are not referred,” says Mark Kris, chief of thoracic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “They come on their own.”
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Hinze tapped into the type of state-of-the-art expertise available at the nation’s major cancer centers – and not just to people who live nearby. In particular, the 68 hospitals designated as national cancer centers by the National Cancer Institute (cancer.gov), which are supported by taxpayer dollars, are a rich resource for patients everywhere. Someone diagnosed with a particularly complex or advanced cancer may benefit greatly by traveling for treatment to a team that has had a wealth of experience with that tumor and is on the cutting edge of research. Each facility’s website makes it easy to request an appointment. “Most people who come to our hospital are not referred,” says Mark Kris, chief of thoracic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “They come on their own.”
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