With our seven locations across the region, this designation impacts the ability to provide world-class cancer care close to home.
Steven D. Leach, MDDartmouth Cancer Center was recently re-designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). A division of the National Institutes of Health, NCI bestows the Comprehensive Cancer Center designation to less than 60 of the 1,500 cancer centers nationwide. Founded in 1972, Dartmouth Cancer Center is one of NCI’s longest continually designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Its renewed designation includes a grant in the amount of $13 million over five years.
NCI-Designated Cancer Centers are characterized by scientific excellence and the capability to integrate diverse research approaches to focus on the problem of cancer. Comprehensive Cancer Centers are recognized for their scientific leadership, resources, and the depth and breadth of their research in basic, clinical, and/or prevention, cancer control, and population science, as well as substantial transdisciplinary research that bridges these scientific areas. There are currently 57 nationally, and Dartmouth Cancer Center is the only Comprehensive Cancer Center in northern New England and one of just three in New England overall (the others being Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Massachusetts and Yale Cancer Center in Connecticut).
“I couldn't be prouder of all our teams at Dartmouth Cancer Center as we enter our second half-century of continuous NCI designation,” said Steven M. Leach, MD, director of Dartmouth Cancer Center. “Our deep integration across Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, our groundbreaking research that transcends disciplines, and, most importantly, our unparalleled bond with the communities we serve, makes our Cancer Center truly unique among this elite group. With our seven locations across the region, this designation impacts the ability to provide world-class cancer care close to home.”
NCI-designated Cancer Centers must apply to renew their designation every five years. Dartmouth Cancer Center’s re-application process started nearly four years ago, and included an 1,850-page application and site visit by NCI in April 2024.
Dartmouth Cancer Center’s renewed NCI designation extends through November 2029.
About Dartmouth Cancer Center
Dartmouth Cancer Center combines advanced cancer research at Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, with award-winning, personalized, and compassionate patient-centered cancer care and clinical trials based at the Norris Cotton Cancer Care Pavilion at Dartmouth Health's Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. With 14 locations around New Hampshire and Vermont, Dartmouth Cancer Center is one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Each year the Dartmouth Cancer Center schedules 74,000 appointments seeing more than 4,500 newly diagnosed patients, and currently offers patients more than 240 active clinical trials. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, Dartmouth Cancer Center remains committed to excellence, outreach and education. We strive to prevent and cure cancer, enhance survivorship and to promote cancer health equity through pioneering interdisciplinary research and collaborations. Learn more at the Dartmouth Cancer Center website.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.