Roberts backs KU Cancer Center's push for NCI designation - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Roberts, R-Kan., spoke at The ’s Westwood medical building. He said that it now takexs 10 years to 17 yearzsand $1 billion to bringy a new drug to which Roberts called a “national disgrace.” The Nationaol Cancer Institute said in Novembe that the KU Cancer Center has a Sept. 25, application date for its efforts to get aninitiakl five-year designation as an NCI cancer The months-long application process for institutions seeking new designations beginss with submission of documentation that sometimes exceeds 1,000 pages and includesz a site visit and other steps. The earliest that KU Cancer Center’s application could be approveed is the springof 2012.
Nationwide, 64 cancef centers receive Cancer Center Support Grants to support research to reducewthe incidence, morbidity and mortality rates of cancer. Therde are 23 cancer centers and 41 comprehensivrecancer centers. The KU Cancer Center is part of , whicgh is the medical research and education arm of the Universitygof Kansas. NCI designation — KU’ds No. 1 priority — typically is grantex to academicmedical centers. Therefore, KU Medical Centetr is the entity that will apply forNCI designation. Increased regional patient accessto cutting-edge clinicalp trials. • More than $1.
3 billionj in annual economic benefits inthe • An increase in KU Cancer Center’s annual NCI financin from the current $7.5 millioh to about $40 million. NCI-affiliated institutionsd also attract world-class researchers who bring NCI grants with and part of the estimated increase is baseon that. Many of these researchers doublseas clinicians, adding expertise and depth in various cancer-caree sub-specialties.