Periodically, the Office of Philanthropy invites City of Hope leaders, faculty and researchers to have a conversation about their groundbreaking work.
Edward S. Kim, M.D., M.B.A., is the vice physician in chief of City of Hope National Medical Center and the Construction Industries Alliance City of Hope Orange County Physician-in-Chief Chair. He also serves as the director of City of Hope’s Clinical Trials Office. We talked to him about exciting new developments at City of Hope, including the national expansion of our clinical trials program, the opening of a new cancer specialty hospital in Orange County, and how philanthropy is driving progress forward.
Dr. Kim, City of Hope has always had a robust clinical trials program. Why are these studies important?
City of Hope has a very large clinical trials portfolio. In total, we run approximately 700+ clinical trials a year. Bottom line, clinical trials are opportunities for patients.
When people say that they're practicing the standard of care, they're practicing yesterday’s medicine. The standard of care is what we've already established. Our job at City of Hope is to move the field forward and create new standards. So clinical trials are really important.
“When people say that they're practicing the standard of care, they're practicing yesterday’s medicine. The standard of care is what we've already established. Our job at City of Hope is to move the field forward and create new standards.”
— Edward S. Kim, M.D., M.B.A.
Tell us about the evolution of our program. What’s behind the expansion? What can we do now that we couldn’t before?
Two years ago, our Clinical Trials Office was primarily centered in our flagship location in Duarte, California. It was not scalable and did not utilize what is a huge strength of ours, our national network.
So, we underwent a restructuring process so that we're ready for the future. The first thing we needed to do was make clinical trials available at all our locations. Today, we can open a trial at any one of our sites — the 30+ locations in California, as well as Chicago, Atlanta and Phoenix.
We don't open every clinical trial at every site. However, through our National Clinical Trials Model, we have built the infrastructure and streamlined the process so that any eligible patient can enroll in an existing study at any one of our sites within two weeks. This happened recently with a patient in Orlando whose oncologist wanted to enroll her in a trial we have in California. She couldn’t travel to California, but she could go to City of Hope Atlanta. So, we reviewed her paperwork and got her in there.
To my knowledge, we're one of the only academic centers in the country that does this, and it is not easy. But it is so important for our patients. This is the future of oncology care.
City of Hope is known for being able to move research quickly, to get treatments from the “bench to bedside” faster than other places. Can you tell me how we’re able to do that?
Most places don't invest in therapeutic manufacturing. City of Hope does.
City of Hope has a robust team of basic science researchers. After they find something interesting or something new, the next hurdle is finding a company that wants to license it or help manufacture it. We have all the infrastructure and resources to do it ourselves under one roof. That allows us to speed up the developmental clinical timeline.
City of Hope is able to create homegrown trials that are “first-in-human" or first in the world. That all happens at City of Hope, and it's unique and special.
“City of Hope is able to create homegrown trials that are 'first-in-human' or first in the world. That all happens at City of Hope, and it's unique and special.”
— Edward S. Kim, M.D., M.B.A.
Switching topics a bit, City of Hope Orange County is opening a new specialty hospital later this year, which you have played a big role in. What do we anticipate will be the impact for patients?
You don't get to open a hospital every day in California. So, this is a very special occasion. The reason we're building it is to bring more of our expertise to a greater number of people.
When is the last time a health organization brought close to 100 experts in cancer to your neighborhood? When we opened Lennar Foundation Cancer Center in 2022, we brought 40 additional cancer experts into this community. Now we're bringing in another 52 physicians, another 30 physician assistants, and hundreds of trained nurses.
We’re bringing a level of oncology expertise, from screening and prevention to survivorship, that just didn't exist in this geographic area before in the way it does now. Who wouldn't applaud that?
City of Hope is a nonprofit, so we rely on donor support to do a lot of the things you’ve described. You’re a big believer in the power of philanthropy. Tell us about that.
Whether it’s a $10 check or $10 million, every cent helps drive the mission forward. Philanthropy accelerates research. It helps with services. It helps with personnel. Seed funding for pilot projects. It helps our folks accomplish things quicker than they normally would if they had to apply for federal funding. It allows us to dream!
We have a lot of threats related to government funding right now so that just magnifies the effect that philanthropy can have propelling cancer research forward.
Every person that I hire, I tell them the importance of philanthropy. It’s very empowering and energizing to faculty when they can actually think about where the future can go. Dare to dream big to help more people.
The Cherng Family Center for Integrative Oncology at City of Hope is a perfect example. We're building something unique across our system that didn’t exist before: from rehab to nutrition to holistic therapy to natural product development. It’s so special that we can accelerate this work because of the generosity of philanthropy.
Philanthropy means we can be transformational leaders in a lot of things. Our new national clinical trials model. Our national integrative oncology program. I appreciate any time we are leading the way in something because it means we are bold. We are pioneers. We’ve got to continue thinking outside the box.
“Whether it’s a $10 check or $10 million, every cent helps drive the mission forward.”
— Edward S. Kim, M.D., M.B.A.