MedPage Today reports that “an alternative cancer center model has been emerging at a number of healthcare institutions around the country that offers patients local access to more and earlier-phase clinical trials and better care than they might receive in traditional community settings.”

“These new hybrid centers also provide oncologists an opportunity to practice medicine and conduct clinical research without some of the bureaucratic layers inherent in academe.”

“They appear to have one overriding common denominator: a director with a record of success at an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, who was recruited to establish a new cancer program within a not-for-profit — but money-making — regional health system that offered the needed resources and support.”