Cancer care at Mayo Clinic
A team of experts focused on you
Experts at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center understand cancer, and have the deep experience needed to treat your precise form of cancer. They also take the time necessary to understand your needs so they can pinpoint the most effective treatments based on your preferences and goals.
To diagnose your exact cancer type, our specialists use advanced techniques, such as genetic sequencing. The team then works with you to tailor a precise treatment plan, expertly applying the latest options and technologies.
But our care extends beyond your cancer.
As part of the largest integrated not-for-profit medical group practice in the world, our teams collaborate with top-notch experts in every medical specialty. That allows us to treat the whole you, no matter how complex your needs or rare your condition.
Why Choose Mayo Clinic for Cancer Treatment
Unmatched patient experience
You and your healthcare experience are at the center of your care team at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. Our primary value — the needs of the patient come first — has driven the patient experience at Mayo Clinic since our earliest days.
This primary value has earned Mayo Clinic more U.S. News & World Report No. 1 rankings than any other hospital. We are also ranked No. 1 in cancer care in the states we serve: Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.
As the only National Cancer Institute-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center with three locations, we provide you:
- Unhurried exams with a team that listens to and cares about your questions.
- A team that coordinates across specialties to address your unique needs with condensed appointment itineraries, providing faster access to care.
- A comprehensive evaluation so you get the right answers the first time.
- Access to the latest technologies and techniques available.
- Support services that allow you to focus on healing.
Unmatched expertise
Every year, experts at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center see more than 130,000 people for cancer. They have a keen understanding of virtually every type of cancer, including rare and complex forms. In fact, Mayo Clinic often sets new standards for cancer care that other institutions around the world adopt.
Our standard-setting care comes from our relentless drive to offer better options. As part of that drive, our physicians and researchers not only use the latest treatments and technologies available, they examine every facet of a treatment's delivery, continually seeking to improve its effectiveness.
Our commitment to constant improvement, combined with the large number of cancers we see every year, has helped us build one of the deepest repositories of cancer knowledge in the world. We focus this deep knowledge on you and your cancer. For instance, at Mayo Clinic, it's common practice for a board of specialists to review a cancer diagnosis and treatment plan to ensure every option and possibility is considered.
We continually enhance our knowledge by conducting clinical trials, which deliver tomorrow's treatments today. Through our hundreds of cancer clinical trials, you have access to treatments and technologies that aren't yet available anywhere else. These options may enhance a standard method of care or provide hope to people that seem to have no treatments available.
Unmatched care
Prevention and screening
Our greatest opportunity to save lives is to prevent cancer before it starts. When that's not possible, early detection offers the best chance for a cure. We offer advanced prevention strategies and screening options, and our researchers study how to improve them.
Diagnosis
A precise, prompt diagnosis is critical to effectively treating cancer. Mayo Clinic uses the latest technologies available, such as advanced genetic testing, to understand each cancer's exact stage, type and aggressiveness. This precision enables your care team to tailor a treatment plan specific to your cancer and your needs.
Treatment
Mayo Clinic leads the way in offering advanced cancer treatment options. Our healthcare teams and researchers continually pioneer innovative methods to make these treatments more effective, setting the standard for other healthcare professionals to follow.
Depending on your needs, your treatment plan may include:
- Proton beam therapy is a precise radiation that limits damage to healthy tissue. This therapy may shorten treatment time for some cancers.
- CAR-T cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that transforms your own T cells to fight cancer.
- Nuclear medicine therapy uses radioactive medicines that bind to cancer cells and destroy them.
- Targeted oncology is a treatment that targets specific genes to fight your unique cancer, such as monoclonal antibodies, biological therapy and chemotherapy.
- Radiation therapy applies targeted and regulated doses of high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells. Advanced techniques include intraoperative radiation therapy, which is an intensive radiation treatment administered during surgery, and de-escalated radiation therapy, which may reduce treatment times, toxicity and side effects.
- Interventional radiology uses imaging to precisely target therapy through a range of techniques, such as tumor ablation. Forms of ablation include radiofrequency ablation, which uses electrical energy and heat, and cryoablation, which applies extreme cold.
- Surgical oncology treats cancer using advanced techniques such as minimally invasive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Surgeons use life-size 3D models to precisely plan your surgery and help you understand your condition and the procedure. With deep expertise and collaboration across specialties, Mayo Clinic surgeons can operate on people who might not have that option elsewhere.
- Bone marrow transplant infuses healthy blood-forming stem cells into your body to replace bone marrow that's not producing enough healthy blood cells. Mayo Clinic conducts bone marrow transplant, also called stem cell transplant, as an outpatient procedure. This reduces the time patients spend in the hospital.
Survivorship
Mayo Clinic cancer survivorship clinics customize care plans to help you live well after a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Depending on your needs, experts may:
- Assess your risk for cancer recurrence.
- Assess your physical and emotional needs.
- Recommend ways to improve your health.
- Create a personalized follow-up care program.
- Connect you with palliative care specialists to ease symptoms associated with cancer treatment and survival.
- Develop a personalized cancer rehabilitation program.
To connect with others who have experienced a cancer diagnosis, visit Mayo Clinic Connect.
Find social and emotional services to support you at every phase of your cancer experience.
Your care team
At Mayo Clinic you are at the center of your care team. That means you have access to all the experts you need to ensure your care plan is the best fit for you. Your medical team may include experts from different fields, many of whom are specialized in your type of cancer. Your team also may include support staff such as patient navigators, interpreters or social workers.
Adolescent and young adult cancer specialists help young people address their cancer and other challenges that come with it, including fertility, relationship dynamics, school and work considerations, financial implications, and more.
Some treatments can affect fertility. A fertility specialist helps preserve future reproduction options, including for young adults and children receiving cancer care.
A cancer geneticist uses results from genetic testing to predict a person's risk of developing a particular disease. This information is used to guide healthcare, including which specific treatments may be effective.
These healthcare professionals specialize in diagnosing and treating blood diseases. Hematologists work directly with patients who have blood-related disorders.
Specializing in diagnosing and treating cancer in adults, medical oncologists are often the primary healthcare provider for someone with cancer. Many medical oncologists at Mayo Clinic are hematologist-oncologists. These specialists are trained in diagnosing and treating blood diseases and cancer. Depending on your exact cancer type, you may be cared for by oncologists specializing in dermatology, gynecology, neurology, cardiology, lung care or urology.
Experts in physics, medical physicists develop precise radiation treatments based on your cancer, its location, your body and other data.
Your nurses manage your day-to-day care with your doctors and assist with procedures and treatments. Some of your nurses may be oncology nurses specially trained to treat and care for people who have cancer.
With expertise in distress management, onco-psychologists develop treatments to improve health outcomes for people coping with stress related to cancer and its treatments. Their focus is to reduce suffering and help people focus on enjoyment and quality of life, even though they're undergoing cancer treatment.
Since cancer affects a child’s body differently, pediatric cancer specialists develop care plans that minimize damage to still-growing tissues and reduce chances of cancer recurrence.
Experts in cancers that respond to radiation treatments, radiation oncologists work with a team of specialists to provide the optimal dose of radiation that destroys cancer cells while preserving as much healthy tissue as possible.
Radiologists are doctors who specialize in using imaging technology to diagnose and treat people with a wide range of conditions, including those that are complex and difficult to diagnose. They work closely with many other specialists to make sure you get exactly the care you need.
Specializing in operations involving cancer, surgical oncologists remove as much of your cancer as possible, along with a margin of healthy tissue around the cancer. They might also remove lymph nodes to check for cancer spread.
Support beyond your cancer
We know cancer affects all aspects of your life. We offer services and resources to ensure you have the support you need during every phase of your cancer experience, not just medically but emotionally and socially as well.
Not all services are available at each campus. Please confirm availability when you contact us for an appointment.
Find social and emotional services to support you at every phase of your cancer journey.
Get answers to insurance questions and cancer care costs.
Find a collection of trusted information about cancer from Mayo Clinic experts.
Discover how we are developing the cures of tomorrow for everyone, everywhere.
