At The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), physicians and researchers understand that there is no routine cancer. Because cancers are so unique, experts need many tissue samples to study a particular type of cancer.“Cancer is very different from, say, heart disease, which may have only four or five causes,” says Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of The James. “For breast cancer, there may be fifty or sixty causes.”That’s where Total Cancer Care® (TCC) comes in.TCC is a new program that allows cancer patients to donate tissue and blood samples to advance cancer research. Studying tens of thousands of samples will allow researchers to identify better ways to prevent, treat and cure cancer. In addition, it will facilitate the development of more personalized treatments – targeting and treating the exact cause of a particular type of cancer.Participation in TCC costs nothing for patients and requires no extra doctor visits. If patients are scheduled for a blood draw during a regular James clinic visit, a small amount of extra blood would be collected for the study. If patients have a surgical procedure and there is tissue remaining that is not needed for their diagnosis, it would be collected for the study.Discoveries made through this program may help identify new treatments for participating patients and will help others for generations.“It’s a lifetime of care that we will be providing for each participating patient,” Caligiuri says.TCC is a voluntary program. When asked, about 90-95 percent of patients who learn about TCC at the OSUCCC – James sign up to participate.To learn more about TCC, watch this week’s segment of Toward a Cancer-Free World or call The James Line at 800-293-5066.