UW Comprehensive Cancer Center receives second $7 million HHS grant
A second $7 million construction grant for the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC) has been approved by the National Center for Research Resources and $3 million from the National Cancer Institute. It will provide funding to house interdisciplinary breast cancer research on one of four new Cancer Center floors planned for the HealthStar Interdisciplinary Research Complex (IRC), which is scheduled for groundbreaking in 2005.
Located adjacent to the Clinical Sciences Center that houses the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics as well as existing UWCCC research space, the IRC will bring together cancer researchers in the clinical and basic sciences in an interactive environment with the latest technology. Accordingly, the IRC will enhance productivity and creativity by housing cancer researchers, other related investigators, and world-class animal and image-science facilities all under one roof. Completion of the IRC will transform the research potential of the UW Medical School and greatly impact the health of Wisconsin citizens.
The latest grant follows approval of a separate $7 million construction grant for interdisciplinary prostate cancer research that was announced by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson during a visit to Madison in September 2003.
“We are very grateful to Secretary Thompson and the Department of Health and Human Services for approving our grant proposal and recognizing the quality of research at the UW Medical School and Comprehensive Cancer Center,” says George Wilding, director of the UWCCC. “By bringing together a collaborative mix of basic scientists and clinical investigators in one setting with state-of-the-art equipment, we will be even better positioned to address the causes, prevention and treatment of breast cancer patients.”
Breast cancer is a major research focus at the UWCCC. It represents the most commonly diagnosed solid tumor in American women. UW Hospital and Clinics registers approximately 450 new cases of breast cancer each year. Among UWCCC membership, there are more than 25 investigators with more than 90 grants and more than $13 million in funding focusing on breast cancer.
The announcement of this federal grant is another step toward naming the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC) after the late Paul P. Carbone. Carbone, who died in February 2002 at the age of 70, served as director of the UWCCC from 1978 until 1997.
The University of Wisconsin Foundation, with the input of the Paul P. Carbone, MD Memorial Foundation, is raising an additional $10 million in private philanthropy to rename the Cancer Center – the Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“Dr. Carbone’s legacy here in Madison and around the world as a caregiver,
teacher and cancer researcher is nothing short of monumental,” Wilding says. “It is most fitting that our cancer center bear his name. The integration of cutting edge research with world class clinical care at this cancer center is the culmination of his vision.”
An integral part of the UW Medical School, the UWCCC unites more than 200 physicians and scientists who work together in translating discoveries from research laboratories into new treatments that benefit cancer patients. The Cancer Center’s patient care and clinical research is conducted in alliance with UW Hospital and Clinics, in which almost 15,000 patients are seen annually for diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care or consultations. UW Hospital and Clinics was ranked 20th out of the top 50 hospitals providing the best cancer care and research efforts in U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals in July 2003.”
One of only 39 cancer centers designated as “comprehensive” by the National Cancer Institute – and the only in Wisconsin – the UWCCC excels in all of the following:
- Strong basic laboratory and clinical cancer research
- Innovative cancer treatments involving clinical trials
- Cancer prevention and control programs
- Training and education of the next generation of health care professionals
- Cancer information services for the public
- Community outreach and education.