Patient Care

The Division is responsible for outpatient clinics, two consultative services for patients with solid tumors, and a daily Infusion Center/Day Hospital. Each section of the Division rotates and provide daily attending rounds for consult patients in the Inpatient Tower. Our efforts to reduce admissions for elective chemotherapy accomplished stepwise over the past 6 years have been very successful, with a marked reduction. Today the vast majority of chemotherapy regimens are delivered in our infusion center, which has been satisfying to patients and providers.

USC Norris Cancer Hospital – Outpatient Clinic/Day Hospital
The Division of Oncology faculty provide subspecialty care at the USC/Norris Outpatient Clinics and the USC/Norris Health Care Center. During FY2020, Oncology faculty saw a total of 20,527 new and follow-up clinic visits in the outpatient setting. Treatment across Norris consisted of 11,754 visits.

Keck Hospital/Norris Hospital – Inpatient Service
During FY2020, Oncology faculty were responsible for 690 admits, and 3,543 inpatient days. The average length of stay was 5.1 days. Keck Hospital – Consultation Service

At Keck Hospital, one fellow and one faculty are assigned to our consult team which provides inpatient consultations for all tumor types. The team consulted on 193 patients last year. USC Norris Westside Cancer Center

The Cancer Center offers the latest in treatments from a range of specialties, all focused on the oncologic care of patients with prostate cancer. It strives to bring new therapies to patients and is advancing the clinical care of prostate cancer through novel clinical trials.

Keck Medical Center of USC in Pasadena
The Pasadena office offers treatments in all aspects of both hematologic and oncologic care for residents of the San Gabriel Valley. Patients are offered participation in the many clinical trials being conducted by the Division.

Keck Medicine of USC in Orange County
USC Norris Oncology/Hematology locations in Orange County are located in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Irvine. Advanced treatment and clinical trial opportunities are available to Orange County residents in their local communities. Keck Medicine is working in collaboration with Hoag Hospital to continue expanding a higher level of comprehensive cancer and oncology services throughout Southern California.

Keck Medicine of USC in Koreatown and Buena Park
Keck Medicine of USC acquired the LA Cancer Center hematology and oncology practice in Koreatown and Buena Park. These university-based practices predominantly serve a large Korean-speaking population. Patients were temporarily being seen at USC Norris Cancer Hospital while their offices were being upgraded and renovated until the clinics were reopened in Fall 2019.

Keck Medicine of USC in Arcadia
Keck Medicine of USC opened a hematology and oncology practice in Arcadia towards the end of 2018. This expansion offers another location for care in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Cancer Genetics Unit at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center (Cancer Center) includes genetic counselors and a team of cancer specialists who provide genetic counseling for hereditary cancer. Genetic testing is offered to individuals from high-risk families for breast, ovarian and colorectal cancers. Genetic counseling and cancer risk assessment is also offered to individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer at a young age or at multiple sites and others who may be at high risk because of their ethnic backgrounds.

A substantial number of patients are entered into peer-reviewed clinical trials with accompanying translational research protocols, thus bringing innovative treatment strategies and therapeutic agents to patients.

Recruitment into clinical trials from all hospitals affiliated with the Cancer Center was strong, with 376 cases recruited in FY2020. Adult patient recruitment was represented by study type as follows: 246 interventional therapeutic studies; 97 interventional non-therapeutic; and 33 to non-interventional studies. Enrollment by ethnicity was 26 % Hispanic or Latino for interventional therapeutic trials; 53.6% for interventional non-therapeutic and 33.3% for non-interventional. Enrollment by gender was 44.7% female for interventional therapeutic trials; 53.6% female for interventional non-therapeutic and 24.2% female for non-interventional studies. An interactive research and treatment program for the development of new anticancer agents, funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted by a consortium consisting of USC, City of Hope National Medical Center and the University of California, Davis, has made novel compounds available to patients treated in the hospitals of the USC Health Sciences Campus. This program has included components of Phase I testing (assessment of correct dose and definition of toxicity profiles of new compounds) and Phase II trials (assessing the anticancer effectiveness of these agents). Specific attempts have been made to expand the utilization of the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) for Phase I and pharmacologic studies of novel anticancer agents.

Drs. Lu, Spicer, Kang, and Jayachandran undertake breast cancer treatment and research, with an expansion of clinical trials for breast cancer. Drs. Lenz, Iqbal, El-Khoueiry and Algaze are developing strategies of clinical research for gastrointestinal cancers, with an emphasis on molecular correlates of tumor responsiveness and of the familial clustering of gastrointestinal cancer. An active program of research and treatment of genitourinary cancers was initiated by Drs. Quinn, Goldkorn, Pinski, Sadeghi, D’Souza, and Tulpule with specific programs of new drug development and multidisciplinary management. Multidisciplinary management has also been a governing theme in the clinical trials programs that have been developed for lung cancer and head and neck malignancies by Drs. Nieva and Thomas.

Each of these teams has been developed to allow maximum synergy with staff members from other clinical units, including surgical oncology, radiation oncology and urology, as well as an expanded translational interface with the scientists of the Cancer Center and the School of Pharmacy.