Cancer care boom makes N.C. a beacon for patients

The News & Observer
January 24, 2010
By Eric Ferreri - Staff Writer

North Carolina's three largest academic medical centers, at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University, are investing a collective $700 million to upgrade cancer facilities....

But does North Carolina really need all this cancer care?  Experts say there's more than enough disease to go around. State health officials project a 14 percent increase in new cancer cases in North Carolina from 2006 to 2011 and a 21 percent jump in new cancer cases in the Triangle during that same time....

If you've got cancer, North Carolina is a good place to look for help. It is one of just four states - California, New York and Pennsylvania are the others - with at least three "comprehensive cancer centers," a label the National Cancer Institute gives to cancer hospitals where research, treatment and clinical trials meet.... The existence of three such centers is a result of North Carolina's historic emphasis on higher education, a growing and diverse population, and a traditional political willingness to fund cancer initiatives, cancer experts say.  Click here to read more.