While some patients are cured of cancer with just a few months of treatment, a new program at the GW Hospital plans to make fighting cancer a continual process.

This fall, GW Hospital will launch the new Center for the Advancement of Cancer Survivorship, Navigation and Policy. With support from Pfizer and the Pfizer Foundation, the University has committed $1.2 million to be invested over the next three years.

The GW Cancer Institute and the Department of Health Policy in the School of Public Health and Health Services will work together on patient navigation and survivorship programs at the local and national levels.

“One of the major things that we’re working on is a very complex tool to look at national health reform proposals as they roll out from Congress, to asses legislation in terms of how it impacts those who are chronically ill and especially cancer patients and cancer care delivery,” said Mandi Pratt Chapman, co-director of the new center.

Patients who have beat cancer still must receive a variety of treatments throughout their lives. Cancer survivorship programs offer support and care to cancer survivors.

The center is developing online tools to connect with patients, as well as “The Cancer Survivor’s Roadmap.”

“[The roadmap] is going to be some kind of a booklet or some kind of information source for patients when they’re finishing treatment to refer to, to find out what would be helpful as they transition to aftercare,” said Chapman, who is also the director of GW’s Office for Cancer Survivorship.

The new center will launch its different programs over the next three years, but the three main elements of patient navigation, cooperation among survivorship programs and the national health care analysis tool will begin within the first year.