The cancer program at the Lehigh Valley Health Network last week announced a partnership with the oldest private cancer center in the world, the New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Suresh Nair, medical director of LVHN's cancer program, said at the Aug. 4 press conference the Cancer Alliance will allow the local hospital network to have access to MSK's research in cancer treatment and the most current and effective treatments available. He also said LVHN will have access to the more than 800 clinical trials MSK offers compared to the 100 trials LVHN currently performs.

"Now we're determined to take our care to the next level so the people of our community can have access to the best cancer care in the world right here where they live," Nair said.

The two cancer centers will also learn from each other and share research in both directions, MSK's Physician-in-Chief Jose Baselga said at the announcement.

Along with the local hospitals gaining access to MSK's research, LVHN's research will be shared with the other healthcare providers in the Cancer Alliance.

"We will learn from them and they will learn from us," Baselga said.

Baselga added Nair is a "world expert" in melanoma treatment and that his expertise can be utilized in the other oncology organizations in the Cancer Alliance.

"What we are doing for Melanoma we should be doing in every single skin type through clinical trials," he said.

The health network is the second alliance member in the MSK Cancer Alliance. Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute in Connecticut was the first hospital network to join the alliance last fall.

Brian Nester, president and CEO of LVHN, said the history of the two health care companies actually began 50 years ago, when Leonard Pool, the founder of Air Products whose $5 million donation led to the construction of Lehigh Valley Health Network - Cedar Crest, went to the New York cancer center for his wife's treatment for lung cancer.

Larry Levitt, his wife's doctor, mistook Pool for a poor man because he saw him sleeping in his wife's room and invited him home for dinner. Levitt later found out who Pool was - after he heard Pool donated $1 million to MSK because of his experience there.

"You could say MSK is in our DNA here at the Lehigh Valley Health Network," Nester said.

Craig Thompson, president and CEO of MSK, said he also has a history in the Lehigh Valley, and said he did part of his clinical rotation in the Lehigh Valley when he was a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania. He said collaborating with LVHN is a way to increase the quality of life for cancer patients.

"At the end of the day, patients and their families are the motivation behind everything we do," he said. "And this means forging alliances like the one we are creating today."