Mission Statement
The University of Kansas Cancer Center seeks to accelerate cancer prevention, discovery and care to save and improve more lives.
Elevator Speech for obtaining Comprehensive Cancer Center Designation
To obtain Comprehensive Cancer Center designation, The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s research efforts must be wider, deeper and larger.
Wider –
· Broaden partnerships with communities throughout Kansas and western Missouri
o We now have 21 Midwest Cancer Alliance member hospitals/facilities throughout the state of Kansas and Western Missouri, and continue to grow this important partnership of providing resources and treatment to patients in our region.
o We provided 44 telemedicine consults and more than 2,460 continuing education hours, primarily through televideo and in-person sessions, to providers and patients throughout the region this past year.
o We launched the Survivorship Transition Clinic to help individuals who have survived a pediatric cancer diagnosis thrive as adults.
· Advance education for the next generation of scientists and health care providers
o We have created and grown our Cancer Biology Department into a staff of 54 with expanded educational programming opportunities for students.
o We offered 38 seminars in 2014 with both KUMC and outside expert speakers.
· Heighten influence for KU researchers in the national scientific community
o Obtaining NCI designation has helped increase our competitiveness and ability to obtain grant funding.
o Our researchers have 75 current NCI-funded studies and $69.8 million in extramural funding from government, private and national philanthropic organizations.
Deeper –
· Enhance cancer prevention and screening efforts
o Through the MCA and KUCC’s Cancer Control and Population Health (CCPH) Program, 2,240 people have participated in population health trials.
· Strengthen collaboration between scientists in different disciplines
o We are currently conducting multiple inter-disciplinary research studies between cancer biologists and chemists, a cancer survivorship expert and a cancer geneticist, a medicinal chemist and a urologic oncologist, and more.
· Extend studies into high-risk populations
o Our CCPH program received funding for 35 studies in 2014, involving smoking cessation, breast and colorectal cancer screening, rural population studies and more.
Larger –
· Grow research funding to understand and treat cancer
o KUCC has grown its research funding to $69.3m since obtaining NCI designation and increased its published papers to 591.
o In an era when funding from the NCI has been declining, KUCC has been able to provide investigators with enhanced support for our pilot projects to foster the development of new approaches and ideas.
o While more lives are being saved through cancer prevention efforts and current treatments, the incidence of cancer continues to grow. By 2030, cancer cases are predicted to increase by as much as 45%. Funding for cancer research must continue to expand in order to effectively care for future cancer patients.
· Expand facilities and staff resources
o KUCC has created 627 jobs since 2007 and is estimated to create 199 jobs by 2018.
o The KU Clinical Research Center is fully staffed and provides treatment options, including novel drugs and drug combinations, not available prior to NCI designation.
· Increase access to promising clinical trials
o 122 new clinical trials have opened since obtaining NCI designation. There are over 80 trials open.
o 351 patients participated in clinical trials in 2014.
o We will continue to build on the accrual of patients to clinical trials, especially investigator-initiated studies and studies geared to rural populations throughout the region.