When an Arkansan hears the words, "You have cancer," the last thing that patient wants to hear next is, "You need to leave the state for care."

More than 50 years ago, two young Arkansas physicians decided that should not be the reality.

Arkansas natives Dr. James Y. Suen and Dr. Kent C. Westbrook could have built remarkable careers elsewhere. Instead, they came home and helped change the course of cancer care in Arkansas.

Their legacy deserves to be remembered not simply as a chapter in the history of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), but as a deeply personal gift to generations of Arkansas families.

In the 1970s, Suen and Westbrook, both UAMS graduates, were completing fellowships at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. They saw what comprehensive cancer care could accomplish, and they saw what Arkansas lacked. They dreamed of bringing that level of care back home.

Their goal was straightforward: Arkansans shouldn't have to leave the state to receive the best possible cancer treatment. In 1976, they secured a major National Cancer Institute grant to establish a multidisciplinary head and neck cancer program, one of only 12 such NCI programs in the country at the time.

Then they did something even more ambitious. With the support of........

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