Emory Winship Cancer Institute is currently working to become Georgia's first  Comprehensive Cancer Center, as designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

This means that we are developing a plan that shows how Winship meets rigorous criteria for the breadth and depth of its basic science and clinical research, as well as for prevention, control, and population/behavioral sciences. To become a Comprehensive Cancer Center, we must also implement effective collaborations among these disciplines as well as with other academic medical centers in Georgia and across the nation.  We will also clearly define how we provide public information, education and outreach to health care professionals and the community.

The planning process, which is funded by a $2 million planning grant from NCI, takes 5 years and subjects Winship to extensive peer review. 

The effort is well worth it: NCI designation for Winship would give Georgians improved access to clinical trials and resources available only through Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Fewer than 50 cancer institutes in the U.S. are Comprehensive Cancer Centers.

 Winship as Comprehensive Cancer Center:  Fast Facts

• Cancer Centers represent the nation's cancer research infrastructure. They are central to translating laboratory findings into the next generation of therapies and potential cures. Cancer Centers have become the model for research and treatment. Almost all present-day curative therapies and key research discoveries have originated in the cancer center setting and have been developed in close partnership with the National Cancer Institute and the American pharmaceutical industry. 
• Cancer Centers offer cancer patients access to a wide variety of new therapies by serving as headquarters for most of the nation's cooperative group trials, as well as being sites for industry-sponsored and center-specific studies.
• Clinical trials developed and carried out at Cancer Centers throughout the U.S. have resulted in cures for many childhood cancers, as well as Hodgkin's disease, testicular cancer and certain forms of leukemia. These well-planned and research-based therapies most recently have resulted in improved treatments for a variety of the most common solid tumors, including colon, lung, and breast cancers.
• Cancer Center researchers and clinicians have successfully worked to decrease the costs of even the most intensive cancer therapies by using new scientific knowledge to refine therapy and reduce treatment toxicity. Patients and their physicians now can choose from a range of outpatient procedures that restore the patient's health with fewer side effects.
• Scientists at Cancer Centers across the country have made key discoveries, including tumor-promoting genes and tumor suppresser genes. Today, hundreds of genes have been identified and used in cancer prevention, detection, and treatment.
• Cancer Centers are at the vanguard in understanding what causes cancer and converting that knowledge in to novel ways to prevent and detect cancer, as well as share new and known methods of prevention to the population at large.