Overview
What is Total Cancer Care?
Total Cancer Care is Moffitt Cancer Center's comprehensive approach to cancer that enables researchers and caregivers to identify and meet all the needs of a patient and his or her family during the patient's lifetime and for future generations.
In 2003, Moffitt Cancer Center began developing Total Cancer Care, which is a holistic plan to improve the standard of cancer care by providing individualized, evidence-based treatment decisions based on the large-scale integration of information technology, scientific discovery and health outcomes. This approach will provide evidence-based guidelines to improve care and outcomes for cancer patients throughout the state of Florida and beyond. Total Cancer Care addresses cancer as a public health issue and takes a holistic approach by encompassing all aspects of the disease, including preventive measures such as the study of genetic predispositions, impact of health lifestyles and integrative medicine. Total Cancer Care follows the patient throughout her or his life, including screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Translational research is incorporated at each step along this continuum of care and follow-up.
What makes Total Cancer Care so effective is its comprehensive approach. Total Cancer Care is more than just a registry, cohort study or tissue bank. The added value of Total Cancer Care is that the system prospectively consents patients, collects clinical data throughout a patient's lifetime, institutes a 100% electronic process, profiles all tumors, utilizes a multi-dimensional data warehouse architecture, and designs different views of access to the data for the patient, clinician and researcher. The system efficiently collects and stores a very large amount of samples and information to provide in-depth analysis, which leads to improving the standard of care addressing a specific patient's needs.
Total Cancer Care is a partnership of patients, doctors and researchers trying to advance cancer care through personalized medicine.
-
Patients enroll at Total Cancer Care hospitals and doctors' offices.
-
Patients donate clinical information and excess tumor samples and body fluids not needed for their care.
-
Data is stored and may be analyzed by researchers for biological or clinical elements that may advance the care and treatment of cancer.
-
Doctors may contact patients again if new information is discovered that could help in their care, including possible clinical studies.
Total Cancer Care is an ambitious partnership between patients, doctors and researchers to improve all aspects of cancer prevention and care. Patients participate by donating information and tissue. Researchers use the information to learn about all issues related to cancer and how care can be improved. Clinicians use the information to better educate and care for patients.