St. Luke's University Health Network has earned a three-year accreditation with commendation as an Integrated Network Cancer Program from the Chicago-based American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer. This is the fifth time having earned this accreditation in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013.

To receive this, a cancer program must meet or exceed 34 quality standards, be evaluated every three years through a survey process, and maintain levels of excellence in the delivery of comprehensive patient-centered care.The commendation component is awarded only to facilities that exceed standard requirements in several categories. St. Luke's excelled in five of the 34 categories including accuracy of data and public reporting of outcomes and earned the silver commendation status.To be considered for the commendation, an organization must have multiple facilities providing integrated cancer care and comprehensive services, as well as be Commission-accredited cancer programs, meet performance expectations and participate in cancer-related clinical research.St. Luke's takes a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer. It treats cancer as a complex group of diseases that requires consultation among surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, diagnostic radiologists, pathologists and other cancer specialists.Like all commission-accredited facilities, St. Luke's maintains a cancer registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base, a joint program of the Commission and American Cancer Society. This database is the largest clinical disease registry in the world. Data on all types of cancer is tracked and analyzed and is used to explore trends in cancer care.Commission-accredited cancer centers, in turn, have access to information derived from this data analysis to improve treatment efforts.