Community Health System and Valley Children’s Healthcare are expanding access to advanced cancer treatments in California’s Central Valley, including CAR-T cell therapy. These initiatives aim to reduce the need for patients to travel to Los Angeles or the Bay Area for specialized care, which has posed financial and logistical challenges for many families.
The Community Cancer Institute, located at Clovis Community Medical Center, recently received a $9 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to establish the Central Valley Community Care Center of Excellence (CCCE) in regenerative medicine. Dr. Haifaa Abdulhaq, director of cellular therapy at Community Cancer Institute and director of hematology at UCSF Fresno, leads this effort.
“This honor demonstrates the commitment of our entire Community team, including board members, physicians and donors, to provide the latest and highest level of cancer care for Valley patients,” said Craig Wagoner, president and CEO of Community Health System. “Collaboration with Dr. Haifaa Abdulhaq and other top medical schools in California for this new center ensures patients have cancer treatment and therapies like no other in our region.”
The CCCE plans to create local infrastructure for manufacturing and delivering cell and gene therapies. Partnerships with UCSF and UC Davis will support clinical trials in the region as well as training programs for staff involved in regenerative medicine.
“At Community Cancer Institute, we are dedicated to bringing the most advanced therapies directly to our community,” Abdulhaq said. “Through this CIRM award, we are not only delivering cutting-edge cancer treatments like CAR-T, but we are building a foundation for regenerative medicine that will transform care for patients with cancers, sickle cell disease, neurological disorders, and immune-mediated conditions right here in the Central Valley.”
Clovis Community is currently the only center in the Central Valley offering CAR-T therapy—a treatment that modifies a patient’s immune cells to target cancer cells. According to Abdulhaq: “Currently, CAR-Ts are FDA approved for patients who have relapsed lymphoma and myeloma, as well as acute leukemia. These treatments cannot be offered outside of tertiary centers where they have a multidisciplinary team.”
Development on this program began locally in 2019 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic before receiving certification last year. The first patient treated with CAR-T therapy at Clovis Community has been cancer-free for three months after facing barriers related to insurance approval.
“This particular patient, I felt that treatment was very important for her because she had an aggressive lymphoma and she needed it,” Abdulhaq said. “And at the same time, she said there’s no way that she can travel to get it.” The patient has since returned to work and resumed family life.
A second patient has also responded positively. Abdulhaq noted that travel requirements previously prevented some patients from accessing these treatments: “Most importantly, many of the patients that we referred were not able to get these treatments because of this hardship,” she said. “We saw the need and felt we were in the best place to build the program for our patients.”
The CCCE will soon include a Good Manufacturing Practice laboratory capable of producing cell therapies locally—potentially reducing wait times—and will support new clinical trials as well as educational partnerships with UC Davis and UCSF. Outreach efforts will focus on improving health equity among Latinx, Black, Southeast Asian, Native American and veteran populations.
Valley Children’s Hospital is also developing its own advanced cell therapy program after receiving a $15 million donation earlier this year. The initiative aims to provide bone marrow transplants and CAR-T therapy locally by 2030 through The Dr. Vonda Lee Crouse Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapy Program.
“This gift will bring transformational cancer therapies directly to the children whose families look to us to provide them with the best care in the country,” said Todd Suntrapak, president and CEO of Valley Children’s Healthcare. “Children who need these advanced therapies will no longer have to travel long distances and spend extended days away from home to get treatment and will be able to receive life-saving therapies in a familiar setting, with their families close by.”
Dr. Vinod Balasa added: “With this amazing donation, Valley Children’s joins the ranks of the top children’s hospitals in the nation that can offer these therapies, as well as be among the first to have access to future advances,” he said. “This is a life-saving advancement for our patients.”
One young patient from Porterville underwent CAR-T therapy at Stanford before local options became available; his father credits it with saving his life.
“CAR T saved him,” said Royce’s father Rudy Madrid. “And we strongly believe that.”
Balasa explained how CAR-T differs from traditional chemotherapy: “While chemotherapy uses a shotgun approach that can impact normal cells while it kills cancer cells, CAR T-cell therapy is a targeted treatment,” he said.
Royce is now reported cancer-free.
