M.D. Anderson Opens Cancer Center in Spain

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center recently shared with the world another "first" in cancer care when its first international affiliation - and Spain's first full-service cancer care center - was dedicated.

Former U. S. President George Bush, chairman-elect of M.D. Anderson's Board of Visitors, was joined by M.D. Anderson President Dr. John Mendelsohn, dignitaries from Madrid and visitors from Houston, to dedicate M.D. Anderson International-España. President Bush toured the new facility and visited with staff and patients as part of the celebration. The ceremony capped off a two-day medical symposium conducted by Dr. Mendelsohn and a dozen M.D. Anderson physicians.

M.D. Anderson International-España offers inpatient and outpatient services in a freshly-refurbished trilevel hospital. Adjacent to the remodeled clinic is a newly constructed radiation therapy facility built to specifications and standards established by M.D. Anderson.

Dr. Martin Raber, senior vice president for strategic and business planning, said the center is the only facility in Spain where patients with cancer can receive all of their diagnostic tests, inpatient and outpatient treatment and see all of their physicians at a single site.

With the program now under way in Madrid, patients will be able to stay closer to home, yet still be treated according to M.D. Anderson's clinical care guidelines developed by Houston faculty.

Spanish patients also will have access to many of the clinical trials that M.D. Anderson offers, he said.

Dr. Mendelsohn said more than 100 patients come from Spain to M.D. Anderson in Houston every year, and many more would like to come but cannot because of the time and expense required for travel. The center in Madrid will give those patients an opportunity to benefit from the M.D. Anderson approach to care.

"It is M.D. Anderson's mission to eradicate cancer in Texas, the United States and the world," said Dr. Mendelsohn. "For the first time, we are exporting our expertise to an international partner who shares our mission. This is an opportunity to see if we can help improve cancer care in a population of patients who do not have the chance to come to Houston for treatment. It is a new way to affect cancer care throughout the world."

Dr. Raber said M.D. Anderson International-España expects to register approximately 500 patients the first year.

Though opened only recently, the facility already has had numerous "firsts." With new patients being scheduled for appointments every day, the staff already has given the first radiation treatment and chemotherapy infusion, admitted the first inpatient, implanted the first central line catheter and participated in its first patient conference with Houston physicians via satellite uplink.

Since opening, M.D. Anderson International-España doctors have conducted 450 second-opinion consultations. Working closely with colleagues in Houston via telemedicine and e-mail, physicians at the Spain facility validated or recommended changes to original diagnoses or treatment plans.

M.D. Anderson International-España currently staffs 50 physicians, nurses, technicians, a pharmacist, a nutritionist, a radiation physicist, a dosimetrist and support staff. Medical specialists include a breast surgeon, hematologist, radiation oncologist, anesthesiologist, urologist, general surgeon and two medical oncologists.

The facility has outpatient clinics, outpatient chemotherapy rooms, 20 inpatient beds, a pharmacy and lab.

Currently under renovation are two protected environment rooms for immuno-suppressed patients who have received bone marrow transplants. This month, five operating rooms will open after a total re-design and renovation.

Accompanying the clinic building is the diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy facility that houses two new linear accelerators, a treatment planning system and brachytherapy unit for radiation therapy. It also includes a Magnetic Resonance Imaging unit, a computerized tomography scanner and mammography and ultrasound equipment for imaging. All the diagnostic imaging equipment is digital to allow images to be clearly transmitted from Madrid to Houston via the Internet or telemedicine technology.

Since 1998, the M.D. Anderson faculty and staff has worked closely with their counterparts in Madrid, collaborating on infrastructure, training and quality assurance. They have developed and implemented a variety of clinical practices and programs, including patient education, nursing, pharmacy, volunteer services, radiation physics and dosimetry, and management information in an effort to replicate and embrace key M.D. Anderson operations and philosophies.

Dr. Raber said that as part of the collaboration, all physicians and surgeons of M.D. Anderson International-España have spent time or trained with their specialty teams in Houston. More than a dozen nurses trained in Houston for six weeks last spring, and an M.D. Anderson nurse has been coaching and offering daily hands-on training to nurses in Madrid.

"Part of this facility's formula for success is the fact that all the physicians and nurses will be from Spain," said Dr. Raber. "They know the culture and the community, and we want M.D. Anderson International-España to grow slowly and steadily and be a resource for patients and physicians."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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