All About the Cancer Therapy and Research Center
with Lesley Mathews, RN, MSN, AOCNP

Lesley Mathews received her master's degree in Nursing from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996, after 10 years of varied experience as an RN/BSN. She has been certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner with the American Nurses Credentialing Center since 1996, and recently passed the Oncology Nurses Certification Corporation's exam to become an Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse Practitioner (AOCNP). She has been working exclusively with oncology patients since 1998 when she ran an indigent care clinic in Austin. She came to the Cancer Therapy and Research Center in 2000 to work with patients undergoing clinical trials for cancer research. Her job involves performing physical exams and managing both treatment and disease-related side-effects and symptoms. She finds the job consistently fascinating and rewarding, and considers herself a fortunate member of a team of devoted researchers, doctors, and co-workers at the CTRC. In her spare time she has been matching socks and raising three excellent children, whom she considers her masterpieces. They are in various stages of launching.
All About the Cancer Therapy and Research Center

The Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) is a not-for-profit, multidisciplinary, outpatient clinic and research center. Through the San Antonio Cancer Institute and it's affiliation with the Institute for Drug Development and the The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) the CTRC is one of a few cancer centers in the U.S. selected by the National Cancer Institute to receive funding to conduct Phase I clinical trials in which new anti-cancer drugs are administered to people for the first time.

The CTRC also participates in a wide variety of cancer prevention, detection and treatment-related education programs. Many residents of the area have benefited from the caring attention of the Center's staff. The CTRC is recognized in the international medical and scientific communities for its exemplary research, caring treatment methods and innovative educational programs.

The Cancer Therapy and Research Center has a long-term commitment to the prevention of cancer and its successful treatment for those who develop it. Because cancer represents more than 200 different diseases, each with a potentially different prevention or treatment strategy, one can anticipate a challenging future for our research programs. In conjunction with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, we are focusing on a variety of cancers through a world class research effort on new drug development through the laboratory and clinical research at the CTRC's Institute for Drug Development; and in identifying new cancer-causing genetic defects and their treatment.

For more information, please call our toll-free help line at (800) 340-CTRC. From San Antonio the number is (210) 616-5504. You can also visit the website at www.ctrc.net.