The Story
As the Midwest’s first and Ohio’s only freestanding cancer hospital and research institute, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is one of only 40 centers in the United States designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. The James is a national leader in creating and testing new therapies based on scientific research, many of which are offered nowhere else in the world.
To learn more, visit the James Web site.
James Facts
- One of 21 members of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)
- One of only 40 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute
- One of 10 free-standing cancer hospitals in the nation and the only dedicated cancer hospital in the Midwest
- A Comprehensive Cancer Center as designated by the National Cancer Institute since 1976
- One of only seven centers in the country funded by the National Cancer Institute to conduct Phase I and Phase II clinical trials for new anti-cancer drug
s - Consistently ranked as a top cancer hospital by U.S. News & World Report and Leap Frog
Cancer Facts
Cancer is a group of many related diseases that begin in cells, the body’s basic unit of life. Normally, cells grow and divide to produce more cells only when the body needs them. Sometimes, however, cells become abnormal and keep dividing to form more cells without control or order, creating a mass of excess tissue called a tumor. Tumors can be malignant (cancerous) or benign (not cancerous).
The cells in malignant tumors can invade and damage nearby tissue and organs. Cancer cells can also break away from a malignant tumor and travel through the bloodstream or lymphatic system to form new tumors in other parts of the body.
Most cancers are named for the organ or type of cell in which they begin. For example, cancer that begins in the lung is lung cancer, and cancer that begins in cells in the skin known as melanocytes is called melanoma. When cancer cells spread (metastasize) from their original location to another part of the body, the new tumor has the same kind of abnormal cells and the same name as the primary tumor. For example, if lung cancer spreads to the brain, the cancer cells in the brain are actually lung cancer cells. The disease is called metastatic lung cancer (it is not brain cancer).
There are more than 100 different varieties of cancer, which can be divided into six major categories. Carcinomas, the most common type of cancer, originate in tissues that cover a surface or line a cavity of the body. Sarcomas begin in tissue that connects, supports or surrounds other tissues and organs. Lymphomas are cancers of the lymph system, the circulatory system that bathes and cleanses the body’s cells. Leukemias involve blood-forming tissues and blood cells.
Cancer strikes one of every two American men and one of every three American women at some point in their lives. Each year, nearly 1.4 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the United States, a figure that does not include the 900,000 cases of skin cancer diagnosed annually. Cancer is the second leading cause of death (after heart disease) in the United States, accounting for 560,000 deaths every year. While more than 3 million people are diagnosed with cancer around the globe each year, the figure most likely represents just a percentage of people who have the disease but remain undiagnosed due to decreased access to healthcare in different parts of the world.
