Cancer Care Specialists in Arizona

Arizona has two National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers: the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson and the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Phoenix, which received its NCI designation in 2023. That second designation was significant. Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the United States, and for years it was the only city of that size without a local NCI-designated center. Mayo's designation changed the geography of clinical trial access for the state's largest population center, particularly for patients with rare or refractory cancers who previously had to travel to Houston, Los Angeles, or Seattle for early-phase trials. Skin cancer defines Arizona oncology in a way that no other state matches. The state's melanoma incidence rate is among the highest in the country, driven by intense UV exposure, an outdoor culture, and a large retiree population with decades of accumulated sun damage. Dermatologic oncology and Mohs surgery programs in Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Tucson operate at volumes that support subspecialty expertise rarely found outside major academic centers. The irony is precise: Arizonans move to the desert for the sun, then spend years in dermatologists' and oncologists' offices managing what the sun did. Rural cancer care access is a documented equity problem. Patients in Yuma, Kingman, and rural Navajo and Apache counties may travel five hours to reach a radiation oncology facility or a medical oncologist who can administer complex chemotherapy regimens. The Arizona Oncology network and Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center have opened satellite locations to shrink these distances, but chemotherapy and radiation schedules requiring daily or weekly visits for six to eight weeks make long-distance cancer care logistically untenable for many rural patients.