Cancer Care Network

Provider Resources for Cancer Care

The MaineHealth Cancer Care Network's approach to cancer care represents a powerful collaboration of Maine’s largest health system, MaineHealth. We deliver the best cancer care as close to home as possible for the people of Maine and eastern New Hampshire.

MaineHealth Cancer Care Network at a Glance

Our team has nearly 300 care providers who specialize in oncology, including those who have achieved the highest level of training in their field. The physicians are employed by or affiliated with 11 MaineHealth hospitals, including:

  • One with accreditation by the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC), a Quality Program of the American College of Surgeons

To deliver the best cancer care as close to home as possible for people in the MaineHealth service area, we have begun with the most prevalent cancers in the region:

  • Breast
  • Colorectal
  • Gynecologic
  • Lung
  • Prostate/Genitourinary

Your patients with cancer have greater access, guided by patient navigators, to a coordinated system of care that includes:

Evidence-based guidelines are being implemented across the system. Diagnostic and treatment protocols are based on these guidelines regardless of which MaineHealth hospital a patient chooses. 

Tumor boards, consisting of multidisciplinary specialists, provide additional perspectives and consider a range of treatment options when a patient’s case falls outside typical parameters. 

Complex surgeries may require surgical oncologists who have the expertise gained from performing a high volume of surgeries. Patients may choose to go to Maine Medical Center or MaineGeneral Medical Center, two of our largest programs, for these surgeries. 

Radiation therapy programs (five locations) and chemotherapy infusion centers (nine locations) are based in communities across our system, giving patients options that can reduce their travel time and expense.  

Clinical Patient Navigators are working together across the system on behalf of patients, helping them understand their treatment protocols, schedule appointments, and access support services in their local communities.

Research has the potential to improve outcomes, even reduce cancer incidence, making it a key element of care. Among our current and upcoming research initiatives are:

  • Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative, a collaboration that is lead by Jackson Laboratories, to give patients access to state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic platforms for personalized and targeted therapy options
  • Maine Cancer Foundation initiative to increase colon screening rate in Maine, and other important cancer prevention and support programs
  • Bristol-Meyers Squibb Foundation grant to support the Maine Lung Cancer Prevention and Screening (Maine LungCAPS) Initiative, a four-year, multi-institution, multi-disciplinary collaboration of MaineHealth care providers and stakeholders, in collaboration with Maine Medical Center Research Institute and other stakeholders in the state
  • MaineHealth Oncology Clinical Trials Network greatly expands and integrates clinical trials offerings at key MaineHealth organizations, including Maine Medical Center, MaineGeneral Medical Center, Southern Maine Health Care, Pen Bay Medical Center and other new sites over time

Promoting wellness in cancer survivors:

The Cancer Survivorship Program at Maine Medical Center has expanded — offering two separate clinics for cancer survivors: The Pediatric Cancer Survivorship Clinic at Maine Children’s Cancer Program and the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) & Adult Cancer Survivorship Clinic at the Scarborough Outpatient Clinic. The AYA & Adult Cancer Survivorship Clinic is for all individuals over the age of 18, who have completed treatment for cancer at any time during their life. (For individuals who are currently followed by an oncologist we recommend discussing survivorship care with your oncologist.) We believe that knowledge of late effects may empower individuals to make better health choices, and early identification and treatment(s) of late effects may mitigate their impact on an individual’s life. For more information, contact the AYA & Adult Cancer Survivorship Clinic or call (207) 396-7788. 

Cancer patients across Maine and the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire have access to more advanced clinical trials in their home communities, thanks to a major federal research grant awarded to the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network in 2019.

  • The MaineHealth Cancer Care Network was awarded a grant by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as a member of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), to implement a new cancer research program that aims to reach more Mainers in their own cities and towns, ensuring they have access to the best possible patient care. Patients are more comfortable being treated closer to their friends and family.

  • The six-year, $5.1 million NCORP award is the single largest grant ever extended by the NCI for clinical cancer research and cancer clinical trials in the state of Maine. Through this funding, MaineHealth Cancer Care Network Lifespan Program was established and designed to bring the latest research in cancer prevention, cancer treatment and cancer care delivery to Mainers. This program is the only oncology program in Northern New England to enroll patients in clinical trials at every stage of the cancer continuum from prevention to survivoral.

  • For more information, click here for current trials. Patients currently have access to clinical trials at Maine Medical Center, Maine General Medical Center, Southern Maine Health Care, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Waldo County General Hospital and Pen Bay Medical Center

Providers may also call 207-396-8670 and email: ClinicalResearch@mmc.org