The University of Hawaii Cancer Center has received a $6.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, allowing construction of a cutting-edge clinical research center that will offer greater access to experimental treatments for cancer patients in Hawaii.
The $13 million clinic, the first of its kind in the state, will be built at the Kakaako center with matching funds from the state and devoted to early- phase clinical trials using some of the most novel and newest agents tested for cancer treatment.
“This fills a hole in our cancer infrastructure and provides a service not available here,” UH Cancer Center Director Randall Holcombe said.
As it stands now, most Hawaii cancer patients who don’t respond to standard therapies must travel to the mainland for a chance at experimental, targeted and specialized “Phase 1” treatments.
Officials believe that 100 to 150 people per year will be eligible to be patients at the the new clinic.
The planned 36,000 square-foot clinical research center — dubbed Ho‘ola (healing) — will be created from two stories of undeveloped space at the UH Cancer Center.
Holcombe said that while construction is expected to start in 2020 and take up to three years to complete, officials are already interviewing for a director and a few other positions.
The Phase 1 trials expected to occur at the clinic represent the cutting edge of cancer treatments, he said. They are likely to be immune therapy-based or targeted therapies that are complex and need specially trained staff members and physicians to run the trials and conduct the research needed to create new drugs.
“I’m really excited. This is really great,” said Sharleen Anderson, a breast cancer survivor and member of the UH Cancer Center’s Patient Advocacy Committee.
While Anderson said her cancer was caught early and treated successfully here in 2016, she knows of others the new clinic will help, including a friend with stage-four breast cancer who is in search of a clinical trial. A colleague who died of cancer considered mainland treatment, she said, but it would have been a hardship with a young child and wife.
“Unfortunately, cancer is so prevalent now,” Anderson said.
More than 6,500 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in Hawaii, officials said.
“Many do fine being treated with standard therapy,” Holcombe said. “There are patients who don’t do well, the difficult cases who need specialized help.”
But this clinic is more than about the treatment. Every patient seen at the clinic will be part of a clinical research study that aims to advance the science of cancer treatment.
Currently, cancer clinical trials in Hawaii are provided through the Hawaii Cancer Consortium, a nonprofit network of the major medical systems led by the UH Cancer Center. Consortium partners include The Queen’s Medical Center, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kuakini Medical Center and Hawaii Medical Service Association.
This network provides access to clinical trials for over two-thirds of the cancer patients in the state, but no Phase I facility currently exists.
Holcombe said physicians and researchers from across Hawaii will have an opportunity to conduct research at the clinic and have their patients treated there.
“It’s a real testament to the spirit of the state to bring these institutions together and to work as partners. That is not seen in many other places,” said Holcombe, who came to Hawaii three years ago from his position as chief medical officer for cancer for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.
National Institutes of Health funding was awarded in part because of Hawaii’s diverse population and the opportunity to learn how treatments work on different populations.
Holcombe said 90 percent of the research on the mainland is conducted on white patients.
“That’s OK, but it’s not representative of our population in Hawaii,” he said. “It’s vital that when new drugs are developed, they are tested on and work in different populations. We will know much more about the usefulness of potential treatments because they are being tested with people of different types and ethnicities.”
According to UH, several cancers have higher incidence in Hawaii than in the rest of the U.S. They include gastric cancer (1st in the U.S.), liver cancer (2nd), breast cancer (6th) and pancreatic cancer (6th). Hawaii also has among the largest number of individuals identifying as LGBTQ (5.1%), trailing only Washington, D.C.
With a mission of reducing the burden of cancer through research, education, patient care and community outreach, the UH Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Hawaii and the Pacific.
Correction: An earlier version of the story misidentified the location of the Mount Sinai Health System. It is located in New York.
