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The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is the top Cancer Research facility in The United States.
It is a cancer teaching hospital located in Houston, Texas inside the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. M. D. Anderson was created by an act of the Texas legislature in 1941 making it a component of the University of Texas System. It was one of the three founding Comprehensive Cancer Centers established by the National Cancer Act of 1971 . The hospital currently sees about 60,000 patients per year and employs over 12,000 people.
It has been listed in the top two cancer hospitals in U.S. News & World Reports since the survey began. It currently has "Accreditation with Commendation" by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and has Magnet Nursing status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center .
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History
The cancer center is named after Monroe Dunaway Anderson, a banker and cotton trader from Jackson, Tennessee. He was a member of a business partnership with Will Clayton that, in the event of one of their deaths, would require a large amount of money lost to estate tax. In order to avoid this Anderson created the M. D. Anderson Foundation with an initial sum of $300,000. In 1939 after Anderson's death the foundation received 19 million dollars.
In 1941 the Texas Legislature had appropriated $500,000 to build a cancer hospital and research center. The Anderson Foundation agreed to match funds with the state if the hospital were located in Houston in the Texas Medical Center (another project of the Anderson Foundation), and named after Anderson.
The hospital started operation in the home of James A. Baker, seeing 46 patients before moving to its current location in 1954.
Growth
The hospital has grown a great deal since then and continues to grow, increasing in size by 50% in the last 5 years alone. The complex now includes an in-patient hospital, clinical research building, out-patient clinic building, a faculty office building and a patient-family hotel in addition to many off-site labs for clinical and research use, with many other buildings under construction.
Buildings in the Center
- Main Hospital
- Clark Clinic
- Alkek Hospital
- La Maistre Clinic
- South Research Building I
- Naomi Research Facility
- Faculty Center
- Houston Main Building
Under construction
- Ambulatory Clinic Building
- Cancer Prevention Building
- George and Cynthia Mitchell Basic Sciences Research Building
- Proton Therapy Center
- South Research Building II
Research
M. D. Anderson is focused on research with the stated mission of "eliminating cancer". In 2003 more than 11,000 patients were part of clinical research projects making it the largest program of its kind in the United States.
The hospital ranks first in the number of National Cancer Institute grants, spending over $262 million on research in 2002.
- Some landmark research conducted at the Center Center includes:
- Initial study of radiation therapy
- First successful use of chemotherapy
- Recommendation for mammograms for screening purposes
- Identified the clinical relevance of chromosomal abnormalities which significantly increased the use of clinical Cytogenetics
- Discovered T-cell receptor
See also
External links
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