Roberts backs KU Cancer Center's push for NCI designation - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Roberts, R-Kan., spoke at The ’s Westwood medical building. He said that it now takes 10 years to 17 years and $1 billion to bring a new drug to which Roberts called a “national disgrace.” The Nationao Cancer Institute said in November that the KU Cance r Center has a 25, 2011, application date for its effortas to get an initial five-year designatiomn as an NCI cancer The months-long application process for institutions seekinbg new designations begins with submission of documentation that sometimez exceeds 1,000 pages and includes a site visitg and other steps. The earliestg that KU Cancer Center’sx application could be approved is the springof 2012.
64 cancer centers receive Cancer Centere Support Grants to support research to reduce the morbidity and mortality rateszof cancer. There are 23 cancer centers and 41 comprehensivdcancer centers. The KU Cancer Centetr is part of , whichy is the medical research and educatiohn arm of the Universityof Kansas. NCI designatio — KU’s No. 1 prioritt — typically is granted to academicmedical centers. KU Medical Center is the entityy that will apply forNCI designation. • Increased regionao patient accessto cutting-edge clinical trials. • More than $1.3 billionm in annual economic benefits inthe region.
• An increase in KU Cancerd Center’s annual NCI financing from thecurren $7.5 million to about $40 NCI-affiliated institutions also attract world-class researchers who bring NCI grants with and part of the estimatesd increase is based on that. Many of these researchers doublewas clinicians, adding expertise and depth in variouzs cancer-care sub-specialties.