Editor's note: this story's image was updated on April 24, 2024 at 8:02 p.m. to reflect the Schusterman Center at OU-Tulsa's campus.
OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. announced in a campuswide email Wednesday that the OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center will expand to Tulsa.
This summer, Stephenson Cancer Center providers will begin seeing patients and conducting clinical trials in Tulsa, according to Harroz's email. Harroz added that plans are underway to build a state-of-the-art facility at OU-Tulsa, which will extend cancer care and life-saving clinical trials offered exclusively at the center to people residing in northeastern Oklahoma.
In 2018, the Stephenson Cancer Center was designated as Oklahoma's only National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Center, a distinction granted to only 2% of cancer centers nationwide. According to the email, statistics show patients receiving care at NCI-designated cancer centers have up to 25% improved survival one year after diagnosis.
Harroz wrote the center's expansion comes at a time when Oklahoma is grappling with the nation's fourth-highest cancer mortality rate. According to 2021 Center for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, cancer is the second leading cause of death in Oklahoma with a death rate of 175.1 per 100,000 people.
"Since 2011, Stephenson Cancer Center has been a beacon of hope for thousands of Oklahomans from its location at OU Health Sciences in Oklahoma City," Harroz wrote. "But with over 100 miles standing between Tulsans and NCI-level care, this distance is far too great a barrier for most."
Harroz wrote that despite representing one-third of the state's population, northeastern Oklahomans have the lowest participation rate in clinical trials. Harroz added the demand for cancer care in the region is expected to increase by 13% over the next decade.
The expanded center, Harroz wrote, is the realization of the Oklahoma Legislature's mandate for the establishment of a statewide cancer network, which was passed in 2001. Harroz also credited the generosity of Tulsans Peggy and Charlie Stephenson, the center’s namesakes, whose donations laid the foundation for the Oklahoma City cancer center and its expansion to Tulsa.
In 2019, the Stephenson Family Foundation and Peggy and Charles Stephenson gave $20 million to the Stephenson Cancer Center to expand its cancer research. The center then committed to raising an additional $20 million, bringing a total of $40 million to discover new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.
The couple has pledged another $25 million toward the Tulsa expansion, according to the Tulsa World.
Harroz also thanked the Cherokee Nation for their contribution to the Tulsa center. Harroz wrote public-private partnerships, including an initial $50 million appropriation by the Legislature from the American Rescue Plan Act and the state general revenue fund to the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, also helped facilitate Stephenson's expansion.
"As Oklahoma’s flagship academic health system, expanding Stephenson Cancer Center to Tulsa is the responsibility we owe our state," Harroz wrote. "Yet, for those of us whose lives and loved ones have been personally impacted by the disease of cancer, this extension promises to make an enduring difference — a difference that may well span a lifetime."
This article was edited by Ismael Lele. Lily Grace Battles and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
