When a person is diagnosed with cancer, the road ahead can be overwhelming. The Hawai‘i Pacific Health Cancer Centers offer teams made up of physicians who are often specialists in a specific type of cancer; patient navigators who guide patients through the daunting journey that unfolds after a cancer diagnosis; nurses, nutritionists and more.

This HPH Cancer Centers’ integrated system has its roots at Straub Hospital. Dr. Reginald Ho, who joined Straub in 1963 and Dr. Reuben Guerrero, who joined in 1973, helped establish cancer care throughout the state. Both doctors, who retired in summer 2021, arrived at Straub just as chemotherapy was becoming a treatment for cancers.

“They were both on the cusp, Reg was in St. Louis and Reuben was at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. They were both training at the same time. There weren’t too many oncologists nationwide because it was a new field,” says Dr. Ian Okazaki, chief of oncology/hematology at Hawai‘i Pacific Health Medical Group.

Today, the HPH Cancer Centers, which provide integrated care throughout
its network for four hospitals, is also a member of the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center Consortium. Through this partnership, hospital patients benefit from access to clinical trials and the hospitals provide the clinical component for UH Cancer Center. This component is essential for the center’s National Cancer Institute designation (there are only approximately 60 designated cancer centers in the nation).

The HPH Cancer Centers continue the work of Ho and Guerrero. As the field of oncology has become more specialized, the center now offers teams specific to different types of cancer — breast, lung or skin cancer for example.

Ho — who was the first doctor of Asian descent hired at Straub — and Guerrero did more than bring an advanced cancer care to Hawai‘i. One could argue that the networking they did in those early years was a precursor to the Telehealth services that we enjoy today.

“I think it’s important to note that kind of integration is going to be across all the specialties at some point. It’s just how we work, and that’s how it started, a long time ago.” hawaiipacifichealth.org/straub