Tommy --

Welcome to the best place around for information and support.

As most frequently used on the OCF message boards, the term CCC (comprehensive cancer center) means that the facility uses a team approach to dealing with an individual case, bringing the knowledge and experience from a variety of specialties to each treatment plan -- a "comprehensive" approach, as it were. Certainly the NCI-designated facilities that treat patients would all qualify!

As for the NCI designation: The National Cancer Institute provides funding for research. Institutions choose to apply for NCI designation (the selection is done through a peer-review process), and the term "NCI-designated" primarily has to do with the facility's research interests --- not the quality or scope of patient care.

An NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center means that the institution is involved in research in three areas: laboratory, clinical and population-based. All NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers also treat patients. An NCI-designated cancer center concentrates research in one or two of those areas, and a few of these facilities -- like the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia or the Salk Institute in San Diego -- do research only. Further information about the cancer centers program is available here: http://cancercenters.cancer.gov/about/our-history.html

Several people who have posted here were treated at Emory -- do a search on Emory in the search box in the upper right corner of each forum page, and you'll find them.