The Scripps Cancer Center and Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center have the same mission — treating and curing cancer — but there are similarities and differences in how they tackle the effort.

Scripps treats more people, 3,481 new cancer patients in 2002 compared to about 2,000 for UCSD. And Scripps is hosting 152 active cancer clinical trials, while UCSD has 131.

UCSD is designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute, the only one in San Diego and one of just 41 in the United States. It attained this honor in August 2001 by meeting rigorous standards for cancer research, prevention, control and education.

When it comes to ongoing cancer research programs, UCSD has seven and Scripps two. UCSD’s programs are cancer biology, cancer genetics, cancer pharmacology, cancer prevention and control, cancer symptom control, translational oncology and viral malignancy. Scripps’ are translational and clinical research.

Calling on the university’s supercomputer, UCSD does broad and deep data analysis, mining huge data sets looking for cancer-related patterns. Scripps does not have such a system, but it does closely track all the cancer cases it has seen for the last 27 years.

Research matters aside, the relative value of how the two systems are structured seems a matter of opinion. With its new $100 million center set to open in early 2005, UCSD aims to create a centralized cancer hub with everything in one place. Scripps officials take pride in offering convenient treatment in local communities through five separate hospitals.

“UCSD has a more peripheral model,” says Dr. Alan Saven, Scripps Cancer Center director. “We try to distribute the drugs closer to where the patients live. We think there’s an advantage to being in the communities and having proximity to patients.”

— Sarah Z. Sleeper