Home

National recognition for the KU Cancer Center will bring life-saving treatments and research closer to home. Increased grant funding will encourage bold research; an expanding biosciences industry will boost the regional economy.

From Fear to Hope

Roy Jensen, M.D., director of the KU Cancer Center, has a plan for improved cancer research in Kansas. That plan would lead to recognition for the KU Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute — the government’s principal agency for cancer research and training. KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway has endorsed the plan and has named achieving NCI designation KU’s number-one priority.

“NCI designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center really represents a ‘seal of approval,’” Jensen explains. “It allows access to cutting-edge clinical trials only offered through an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. It means patients have access to the latest cancer research.”

Key benefits of NCI designation:

  • Better care, closer to home — Physicians get greater access to clinical trial information and best practices. And patients get increased access to advanced cancer care, so fewer will need to travel far to participate in promising experimental therapies.
  • Financial support from the National Institutes of Health will increase.
  • NCI clinical trials will draw cancer physicians and nurses to regional hospitals.
  • Increased grant funding will support bolder research projects.
  • Great return on investment in the KU Cancer Center — the regional economy stands to grow by billions through expansion of the biosciences industry.

How the NCI works
The NCI coordinates a nationwide network of research programs, designating centers to serve as network hubs. NCI currently recognizes 22 Cancer Centers, which focus more strictly on research,and 39 Comprehensive Cancer Centers, which integrate research with clinical care and service.

KU plans to apply for Cancer Center status by 2009 and Comprehensive Cancer Center designation by 2015. As steps toward NCI designation, KU has recruited Karen Kelly, M.D., cancer center deputy director; Gary Doolittle, M.D., statewide medical director, who will coordinate a network of cancer care providers in Kansas; and Scott Weir, Pharm.D., Ph.D., director of therapeutics discovery and development. Both Doolittle’s and Weir’s positions were funded with gifts to KU Endowment.

KU also has requested and received an annual $5 million appropriation from the state of Kansas for program support and recruitment of scientists. Since 2006, the Breast Cancer Research Check-off Fund on the Kansas income tax form has allowed taxpayers to contribute to cancer research at KU Cancer Center.

Additional objectives are to become the leading academic generator of oncology drugs in the initial stage of testing in volunteer patients; to launch the Midwest Cancer Alliance, an outreach network of oncologists, hospitals, physician groups and cancer-support professionals across Kansas and Western Missouri; and to continue recruiting best-in-class physician-scientists whose work is essential to achieving NCI designation.

To see the full version of this and many other stories, please download a copy of our new magazine, KU Giving.