Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Quality of Care

How Many Patients Have You Cared For With My Type of Cancer?

Cancer is not just one disease – it’s a collection of more than 100 different diseases, each with its own characteristics, its own set of treatments and its own challenges. In general, the more of a particular kind of cancer a center treats, the better that center tends to be in treating that type of cancer.

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is a major referral center that treats all types of cancers in adults and children (through the Vanderbilt Childhood Cancer Program at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt). Here are some details about our patient volumes and links to additional information:

• Our Cancer Registry records and follows new cases that we see. The number of new cancer cases entered into our Cancer Registry has grown from 2,265 in 1999 to 3,818 in 2005 (the most recent complete year of available information).
• We currently have more than 20,000 patients under active follow up by our Cancer Registry.
• Our adult outpatient cancer clinic visits and treatments exceeded 57,800 in fiscal year 2006.
• Our cancer-related adult inpatient admissions exceeded 5,500 in 2006 and our pediatric cancer inpatient admissions exceeded 1,000.
• Our adult radiation oncology visits and treatments exceeded 36,200 in 2006 (nearly 5,000 of those treatments were Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy or IMRT, an advanced approach to delivery of radiation).

Types of cancer we treat most

In 2005, the top five types of cancer that we treated, accounting for nearly half of our new cancer cases:

• Prostate cancer: learn more
• Lung cancer: learn more
• Breast cancer: learn more
• Kidney cancer: learn more
• Melanoma: learn more

See a comparison of our new cancer case volumes by primary organ system, 1999-2005.

PRIMARY SYSTEM	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Head and Neck	103	134	160	149	154	172	174
Digestive System	300	356	411	441	409	405	490
Respiratory System	327	338	380	366	329	388	401
Bone, Skin/Soft Tissue	267	267	272	261	305	348	361
Breast, female & male	237	280	285	248	263	257	296
Reproductive Organs	200	257	246	280	187	188	192
Male Sites	255	320	390	421	436	491	617
Urinary System	179	241	261	300	318	372	406
Central Nervous System	75	72	90	79	75	81	104
Endocrine System	36	69	83	98	88	114	150
Lymphatic System	144	173	192	177	175	170	196
Hematopoietic	115	144	207	212	234	288	249
Other & ill-defined sites	0	1	0	1	2	0	2
Unknown primary	27	32	53	44	45	39	36
Benign/borderline brain,cns	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	117	144
Total Cases	2265	2684	3030	3077	3020	3430	3818

See a comparison of our new cancer case volumes by cancer site, 1999-2005.

CANCER SITE	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Lip	1	2	4	6	3	3	7
Tongue	25	40	47	40	50	62	52
Salivary glands	10	12	14	19	10	10	14
Gum & hard palate	18	14	21	18	10	20	18
Floor of mouth	5	9	12	6	6	16	9
Buccal mucosa	6	9	9	9	12	8	9
Oropharynx	21	29	26	38	36	31	45
Nasopharynx	5	6	10	6	12	12	7
Hypopharynx	11	7	15	5	11	9	9
Other oral cavity	1	6	2	2	4	1	4
Esophagus	28	37	31	30	31	39	38
Stomach	22	18	25	24	14	19	34
Small Intestine	3	9	13	15	13	10	15
Colon	101	115	122	146	111	95	129
Anus	53	50	53	78	62	79	98
Liver	26	48	54	49	54	72	68
Gallbladder	15	14	17	11	24	14	20
Pancreas	44	57	74	76	87	60	71
Other digestive tract	8	8	22	12	13	17	17
Nasal cavities, sinuses, ear	15	6	12	21	13	14	16
Larynx	70	51	60	51	44	74	73
Trachea, bronchus, lung-small	31	39	29	27	44	36	41
Trachea, bronchus, lung-NSC	202	236	259	255	223	259	263
Other respiratory	9	6	20	12	5	5	8
Bone	25	40	26	34	44	45	55
Connective & soft tissue	56	83	69	63	77	84	86
Malignant melanoma	111	120	153	143	174	206	213
Other skin	75	24	24	21	10	13	7
Breast, female & male	237	280	285	248	263	257	296
Cervix	64	80	85	107	46	32	40
Endometrium (corpus uteri)	52	79	76	67	56	72	70
Ovary	40	49	40	54	43	43	48
Other female genital organs	44	49	45	52	42	41	34
Prostate	211	288	341	387	397	451	589
Testis	31	27	40	25	27	36	21
Other male genital organs	13	5	9	9	12	4	7
Bladder	91	124	124	146	142	165	162
Kidney	70	97	117	138	167	183	215
Other urinary organs	18	20	20	16	9	24	29
Eye	2	1	6	2	6	2	2
Brain	68	67	80	73	65	73	91
Other CNS	5	4	4	4	4	6	11
Thyroid	33	57	74	94	80	103	135
Other endocrine	3	12	9	4	8	11	15
Hodgkin’s	32	32	21	35	38	29	33
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas	112	141	171	142	137	141	163
Plasma cell tumors	24	29	39	44	55	60	66
Lymphocytic leukemias	34	44	38	51	52	62	56
Myeloid leukemias	45	49	77	67	70	89	73
Other leukemias	7	14	15	11	9	7	8
Myeloprolif. & myelodysplas	0	0	24	19	32	49	25
Other hematopoietic diseases	5	8	14	20	16	21	21
Other & ill-defined sites	0	1	0	1	2	0	2
Unknown primary	27	32	53	44	45	39	36
Benign/borderline brain, cns	0	0	0	0	0	117	144
Total Cases	2265	2684	3030	3077	3020	3430	3818