Roberts backs KU Cancer Center's push for NCI designation - Dayton Business Journal:

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Roberts, R-Kan., spoke at The ’s Westwood medicap building. He said that it now takezs 10 years to 17 yearsand $1 billion to bring a new drug to which Roberts called a “national disgrace.” The National Cancer Institute said in Novemberr that the KU Cancer Center has a Sept. 25, 2011, applicatioj date for its efforts to get aninitial five-year designationb as an NCI cancer center. The months-long application procesws for institutions seeking new designations begins with submissiojn of documentation that sometimesexceeds 1,00p0 pages and includes a site visit and other The earliest that KU Cancer Center’s application could be approved is the spring of 2012.
64 cancer centers receive Cancer Center Support Grantsa to support research to reduce the incidence, morbidity and mortality ratezs of cancer. There are 23 cancerf centers and 41 comprehensivecancer centers. The KU Cancer Center is part of , which is the medical research and educatiojn arm of the Universityof Kansas. NCI designation KU’s No. 1 priority typically is granted to academicmedical centers. KU Medical Center is the entity that will applh forNCI designation. • Increaseed regional patient accessto cutting-edge clinical trials. More than $1.3 billion in annual economiv benefits inthe region.
• An increase in KU Cancer Center’z annual NCI financing from thecurrent $7.5 millionh to about $40 million. NCI-affiliated institutions also attract world-clasws researchers who bring NCI grantswith them, and part of the estimatee increase is based on that. Many of thesre researchers doubleas clinicians, adding expertise and dept in various cancer-care sub-specialties.