A Message from Todd D. Stevens The year 2006 marked the 35th anniversary of the passage of the National Cancer Act (NCA), a landmark statute that committed the United States’ will and resources toward generating better outcomes for all cancer patients and reducing the burden of cancer. The year 2006 also marked the 35th anniversary of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. Together with the nation, we have been fighting cancer for over 35 years. We could not have done so without your tremendous support. In our 35th year, you helped amazing things happen, making contributions to the very goals set forth by the NCA. Hard work and a focus on excellence paid tribute to the visionaries who founded the Center to ensure that high quality cancer care would be available to all community members in need regardless of ability to pay. This mission still holds true today and 35 years later, Mary Bird Perkins offers the most advanced, comprehensive radiation therapy available in the world. Improving outcomes for patients is the driving force at Mary Bird Perkins. The year 2006 saw the implementation of several new treatment options at the Center, including a program that allows the treatment team to be more aggressive when treating cancers that move as a patient breathes, as is the case with lung cancer. Because of this innovative use of technology the treatment team is also able to treat patients with complex non-cancerous conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia and acoustic neuromas. By working closely with experts in the fields of neurology and neurosurgery, we demonstrated that these conditions can be successfully treated with minimally invasive radiation therapy instead of surgery. Two years after the fact, the successful community-supported 2004 Whatever It Takes Capital Campaign continues to make an impact throughout the Center’s research and education partnership with LSU. Funded in part by generous campaign donors, 2006 saw the establishment of an endowed chair at Louisiana State University – the Dr. Charles M. Smith Endowed Chair in Medical Physics. The establishment of the endowed chair ensures the longterm success of this nationally competitive program and its attraction to students from around the nation and beyond. Equally as exciting was the official accreditation of the Medical Physics graduate program, now one of ten such premier programs accredited in the United States. The C.A.R.E. Network, too, marked another milestone in its growth and development in 2006. The Early Bird mobile medical clinic was officially dedicated in January in honor of the many donors who provided the funding for its purchase and operations. Named in reference to its mission of early detection, in its first year on the road the Early Bird provided 122 screenings and reached over 4,500 people in need. Without your support, the lifesaving activities of the C.A.R.E. Network would not be possible.
Your partnership will enable Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center to continue to provide the most advanced radiation treatment technology, cancer research, vital patient services and effective community outreach programs for decades to come. Sincerely,
Todd D. Stevens President and CEO
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MARY BIRD PERKINS CANCER CENTER