ATRIUM HEALTH – LEVINE CANCER INSTITUTE
Atrium Health, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the second largest integrated delivery network in the United States. In 2012, Atrium Health established the Levine Cancer Institute (LCI), a 25-site academic-hybrid, cancer institute with locations in North Carolina and South Carolina. LCI’s mission is to provide patients with cancer care closer to where they live.
Patients treated at any of the LCI locations have access to top-ranked physician expertise, over 400 clinical trials, a 220-chair infusion center, a Phase-I clinical trials unit, bone marrow transplant unit, and the latest cancer treatments from the first Planetree-designated outpatient cancer network in the world. LCI employs approximately 2,000 staff, including more than 150 clinicians and scientists. Over 17,000 new patients are seen each year, and there are more than 200,000 visits per year at LCI.
In 2015, LCI implemented an electronic clinical pathways tool, Electronically Accessible Pathways (EAPathways). This tool was developed by physicians at LCI, with the purpose of providing standardized, evidence-based, continually updated clinical pathways for all LCI network providers. The ability to add new therapeutics or diagnostics in less than 24 hours has enhanced the ability of all providers to deliver cutting-edge care. Furthermore, in the same year, LCI joined Caris’ Precision Oncology Alliance™ (POA).
The extensive expertise of oncologists at LCI allows the network to treat all types of cancers supported by ancillary services that enhance patient-centric care. In addition to anti-neoplastic therapies which encompass state-of-the-art infusion therapy, radiation, and surgical techniques, LCI offers cancer rehabilitation, genetic risk screening, hospice and palliative care, and survivorship programs. The institute operates the region’s only adult blood and marrow transplant unit for stem cell transplantation. Since its inception in 2012, LCI has conducted more than 600 bone marrow transplants including 216 allogeneic bone marrow transplants with 51 of these as matched unrelated donor (MUD) transplants, and around 50 CAR-T treatments.
Approximately 2,000 patients enroll in cancer trials (interventional and non-interventional) annually at LCI, with 65,000 seen in outreach education and cancer prevention activities. Furthermore, LCI was one of the initial sites for the ASCO TAPUR study, which launched in 2016, and was the first site to enroll 100 patients. Since the implementation of EAPathways, clinical trials accrual at LCI have increased dramatically. In 2019 alone, LCI saw the enrollment of 98 patients in phase I clinical trials.
Dr. Antoinette Tan, Chief of the Section of Breast Medical Oncology and Director of Phase I at LCI said, “We (LCI) have been proud to be a member of the Caris POA since its inception for the last 5 years. It is a great opportunity to be able to collaborate with so many leading cancer centers in our quest to change the way we treat cancer through precision medicine.”
For more information, please visit https://atriumhealth.org/medical-services/specialty-care/cancer-care
