CHARLOTTE -- North Carolina hospitals are taking part in a first-of-its-kind study to individualize cancer treatment. Charlotte’s Blumenthal Cancer Center at Carolinas Medical Center is one of those hospitals that recruit thousands of cancer patients for the study.

Marlee Hart, 20, is battling an inoperable cancer. “Two years ago I had another kind of cancer and it turned up on a routine scan… that was last December,” she said.

Hart decided to participate in the new study, where cancerous tissue is dissected, frozen and later evaluated. The goal is to individualize cancers based in part on where they are located and create specific treatments.

"The way that this is described is personalized medicine,” explained Dr. Jeffrey Kneisel of the Blumenthal Cancer Center. “So this is really about your cancer, you're individual breast cancer, or your individualized colon cancer or your individualized prostate cancer."

The Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida is conducting the research. Cancer patients from all over the country can volunteer to be a part of the study. Fifty have already signed up at the Blumenthal Cancer Center.

"There's no guarantee it's going to help them, and that's clear in the consenting process,” said Kneisel. “It's absolutely going to help people in the future."

Hart’s cancer is in her hip. For her there was no reason not to participate in the study. “Nobody should have to go through this ever -- it doesn't matter how old they are, where they are from, anything,” said Hart. “So if I can help somebody else that's great.”

During the next five years, CMC will enroll more than 2,300 patients in the study.