KU Cancer Center receives $1M donation

Kansas University’s ongoing quest for National Cancer Institute designation has received a $1 million boost from a Kansas City engineering, architecture and consulting firm.

The donation will establish a clinical high-risk prostate cancer prevention program.

Roy Jensen, director of the KU Cancer Center, said the donation would support both clinical and research opportunities.

“One of our real strengths is our cancer prevention program, which right now is primarily focused on breast cancer,” he said. “This will help extend that program into the prostate cancer arena.”

While in the future, Jensen said, the cancer center would like to be able to serve all cancer patients, it’s also important not to expand beyond the point where the cancer center can offer high-quality programs.

Greg Graves, CEO of Burns & McDonnell, said he hoped his company’s donation would inspire others like it.

The business community often looks to its leaders of the past to contribute to social causes, but he said he thought that it was important for current business leaders to become similarly engaged in those efforts.

“For me, the No. 1 thing on that list is designation for KU Hospital to be a National Cancer Institute,” Graves said.

Graves is a member of the Cancer Funding Partners Council, a group of civic and business leaders tasked with raising money for the cancer effort. He also sits on the KU Hospital Authority Board.

The KU Cancer Center now has raised $38 million toward a $92 million goal it hopes to achieve before applying for designation in September 2011.