The University of Kansas Cancer Center's quest for NCI designation

The University of Kansas Cancer Center submitted its application for National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation the week of September 19, 2011. The application is possible only through unprecedented support from individuals, businesses and communities throughout the region.

Background  |  2006  |  2007  |  2008  |  2009  |  2010  |  2011  |  September 2011

2009

• The Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation (IAMI) is formed with an $8.1 million grant from the Kauffman Foundation, matched by KU Endowment. Led by Dr. Weir, who is also the leader of the cancer center's D3ET program, IAMI's mission is to streamline the development and delivery of drugs and biomedical devices.
• KU and Kansas State University meet in the governor's office to sign a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing their commitment to collaborate on working toward NCI designation.
• The Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) awards $29 million for state-of-the-art cancer research space and to recruit cancer-related Eminent Scholars (researchers who are nationally recognized for their scientific achievements and entrepreneurial spirits to enhance innovative research that leads to economic gains) and Rising Star Scholars (world-class bioscience scholars with proven records of grant productivity, team leadership in a research environment and an interest in applying research to commercial opportunities to build Kansas' bioscience economy). In part, the KBA investment will support 10 years of bond payments for construction to renovate the Wahl/Hixon Research Complex, estimated to cost $53 million.
• Construction begins on the Wahl/Hixon Research Complex, renovating 170,000 square feet on the KU Medical Center campus to house 37 cancer-focused researchers.
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society names The University of Kansas Cancer Center a national academic partner through the Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP). TAP supports private-sector and academic-based projects to move blood cancer treatments into the development pipeline and closer to commercialization.
• KU orthopedic surgeons are the first in the country to perform targeted muscle reinnervation on a cancer patient.
• After two years of extraordinary growth in its blood and marrow transplant program, The University of Kansas Hospital opens a 7,500-square-foot addition for the BMT program at the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion in Westwood. The program has grown by 92 percent from 2006 to 2007 and another 53 percent in 2008.
• KU Endowment and The University of Kansas Cancer Center announce a fundraising initiative to support the NCI-designation effort. The Advancement Board, formed in 2005 to develop community and political support and to bolster fundraising efforts for education, research and patient care at the academic medical center, launches the Cancer Funding Partners. This volunteer-led effort to foster civic, business and community support begins with a $1 million gift from the Sunderland Foundation.
• Urology Times, a leading medical magazine and the most widely circulated publication among urologists nationwide, names the prostate cancer program at The University of Kansas Cancer Center one of 13 "Clinical Centers of Excellence" in the country. It is the only prostate cancer program in the state of Kansas or the Kansas City metropolitan area to receive the honor.
• The University of Kansas Breast Center is selected as one of just 12 sites nationally for a major clinical research study sponsored by U-Systems, Inc., the developer of a 3D ultrasound breast imaging system, to determine whether 3D automated breast ultrasound, combined with routine screening mammography, is more accurate in detecting breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue than the routine screening mammogram alone.
• KU Endowment announces that a $10 million gift from Joe and Jean Brandmeyer will create an endowed chair of Radiation Oncology and support patient care and research priorities needed to achieve NCI designation. The cancer center recruits Parvesh Kumar, MD, who is internationally known for his work in lung cancer, head and neck tumors and prostate cancer, from the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine to serve as the Joe and Jean Brandmeyer Chair and Professor of Radiation Oncology.