KUMC to announce alliance hospitals

Leaders of Kansas University Medical Center will travel the state Monday announcing the five Kansas hospitals that will serve as the founding members of the Midwest Cancer Alliance.

At a meeting of the Kansas Board of Regents last fall, KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson said Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka would be among the hospitals. The Wichita Eagle reported on its Web site Thursday afternoon that Hutchinson Hospital also would be a founding member. Those two hospitals will join KU Hospital and two others that are yet to be named in the alliance, which will help bring cancer care trials to regions of the state that are far away from KU’s campuses.

The Midwest Cancer Alliance is different from the Cancer Partners Advisory Board, which includes, among other organizations, KU Hospital and St. Luke’s, and was set up to do higher-level planning on the direction of cancer research around the state. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is expected to join the KU team in Topeka when it announces the five founding members of the cancer alliance.