Angel --

Clarification of Ginny's clarification (this is from a post I made last year):

The term CCC as most frequently used here [on the OCF message boards] 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.

I think that what Ginny (Me2) means when she says that Emory is not a CCC is that it is not a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Institutions choose to apply for such a designation, which is based on the facility's interests in research (since the NCI is a main source of funding for research programs), and it sounds from Ginny's post as if Emory is working on that process, which involves a lot of paperwork and can take some time to complete. Here's an explanation from that same post:

[quote]The National Cancer Institute provides funding for research. Institutions 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 is available here: http://www3.cancer.gov/cancercenters/description.html [/quote]
Based on what you have posted, it appears that your medical history is complex. An appointment at Emory or somewhere similar, where a team of physicians from a variety of specialties can evaluate what's going on (starting with a biopsy to determine what you're dealing with), is a great place to start. As I mentioned before, several posters here have been treated at Emory and I'm sure will be happy to provide information about their experiences.

All the best --
Leslie