Background about the Cancer Center
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The NCCC is named for the late Senator Norris Cotton (NH) who was instrumental in securing a $3 million federal grant in 1970 to build rural New England's first regional cancer center. Senator Cotton represented New Hampshire in the United States Congress from 1947 until his retirement in 1974.
When it opened its doors in 1972, the NCCC consisted of a two-story underground facility for radiation therapy and related laboratories and services. It was financed in large part by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare through the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. In 1973, Senator Cotton secured a second federal grant of $500,000 to support cancer research at Dartmouth Medical School. At the same time, the trustees of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital allocated funds to help build a two-story addition to the Cancer Center, which was completed in 1977. In 1978, the NCCC was approved and funded as a National Cancer Institute-designated Clinical Cancer Center. In August 1990, the NCCC was designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center in recognition of its programs in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, research, and education.
DHMC was ranked 30--up 10 from last year--on the list of top 50 hospitals for cancer care by US News & World Report. Our Cancer Center was the only cancer facility in northern New England to qualify among the U.S. News top 50 and is ranked along with such company as Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Johns Hopkins, and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
