Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center

Information may not be reliable

Early in his medical career, Dr. Ravi Patel saw cancer patients in a way that inspired the founding of Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center. He recognized that cancer patients needed more care and attention, both medical and emotional, than most patients. Dr. Patel’s inspiration materialized here in Bakersfield in 1984 with the opening of a 1200 square foot , four-person office.

Over the past 19 years, progress in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer has been dramatic. By 1989, Dr. Alan Cartmell, who came to Bakersfield following a Medical Oncology Fellowship at Vanderbilt University, joined the practice. In 1990 expansion included growth into a 3,000 square foot office. Dr. Shane Tu joined the growing medical team in 1992, the year treatment stations and staff increased to 14 each.

1994 saw the addition of Dr. Shawn Shambaugh who had completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology and Hematology at Penn State University . That same year the first clinical trials began. Dr. Mukhopadhyay merged his existing practice with the others in 1995.

In 1996, the affiliation with UCLA Community Research Network increased our ability to offer clinical trials previously unavailable outside an academic setting to patients. It was actually in 1996 that the name “Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center” came into being. At the time the word “Comprehensive” was a bit of a misnomer, but would soon be the true description of the facility. As has always been the motivating factor for growth, the patients’ needs brought on staff the first specialist who was not a medical oncologist, Dr. Son Dinh. He came to CBCC in 1997 with a Fellowship in Pain Management from UCLA. That same year construction was well under way for the building of CBCC’s brand new 23,000 square foot cancer center.