This week marks a key milestone in the University of Kansas Cancer Center’s multiyear, multimillion dollar quest to obtain next-level certification from the National Cancer Institute.

After submitting an application for the designation in September, the KU Cancer Center, headquartered at the KU Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan., will have its site visit from NCI reviewers on Thursday.

The KU Cancer Center earned certification as an NCI-Designated Cancer Center in June 2012. The designation is reviewed every five years, and this year KU is seeking a higher-level certification, that of NCI-Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The center expects to find out in midsummer if it has achieved the new designation.

“This has been a really incredible team effort,” KU Cancer Center director Roy Jensen said. “We have just outstanding folks that have really worked extraordinarily hard to make Thursday happen.”

There are currently 69 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, located in 35 states and the District of Columbia, according to NCI. Of those, 47 are Comprehensive Cancer Centers.

There is an NCI-Designated Cancer Center in Omaha. The only NCI-Comprehensive Cancer Centers in neighboring states are in St. Louis and Denver.

Roy Jensen, University of Kansas Cancer Center director

These centers demonstrate an added depth and breadth of research, as well as substantial transdisciplinary research to bridge these scientific areas, according to KU. Comprehensive status also requires focus on population-based health directly affecting Kansans.

In all, KU Cancer Center has raised $453 million since 2004 to pursue NCI designation, including $62 million in the past two years, Jensen said.

However, the money isn’t just being used to pursue a designation, he said. It’s being used to create and strengthen efforts to fight cancer, which in turn leads to certification.

“To some extent that’s a distinction without a difference, because to get the designation we have to improve all aspects of our cancer center: the research, the depth and breadth of our programs, and our clinical operations,” Jensen said. “It’s hard to separate the two.”

Jensen cited the following among the KU Cancer Center’s major achievements since its initial designation in 2012:

• Plans have been laid to bring aboard another NCI Consortium member: Children’s Mercy. Jensen said ultimately NCI will decide whether to approve the partnership.

“It involves formalizing a legal agreement between the university and Children’s Mercy,” Jensen said. “Then there are also certain review criteria that have to be satisfied in terms of making sure that our clinical research efforts are in unison and that we have joint research projects and shared leadership and governance of the cancer center.”

Stowers Institute for Medical Research is another consortium partner.

• The KU Cancer Center has significantly grown its “research enterprise,” Jensen said. In 2012 it had $50 million of total cancer related research funding; now it’s $67 million, he said.

One research project that illustrates collaboration between the KU School of Pharmacy, the KU Lawrence campus, Stowers and Children’s Mercy is one led by Stowers investigator Linheng Li, Jensen said. Li discovered a few years ago that a particular protein plays a critical role in controlling cancer stem cells. A team used resources at the Lawrence campus to help identify a new drug to target the protein, and has opened a clinical trial at the KU Cancer Center, with one also planned at Children’s Mercy.

“That’s actually how cancer centers are supposed to work,” Jensen said.

• The KU Cancer Center also has brought 42 new investigators on board since being designated in 2012, Jensen said.

That includes full-time clinicians to basic scientists to “everything in between,” he said. Their work ranges from patient care to research, and they’re spread across entities including the university, KU Health System and the KU Cancer Center.

Demonstrating public health programs is a key component of the designation, and KU Cancer Center has been working on that, too.

Edward Ellerbeck is co-director of the KU Cancer Center’s cancer control and population health program. He also chairs the department of preventative medicine and public health in the KU School of Medicine.

Basically, Ellerbeck’s area is looking at what causes cancer and then supporting efforts to prevent it.

Specifically, the No. 1 cause of cancer in Kansas and western Missouri is tobacco use, he said.

Shrinking tobacco use in the region is a goal of the program, Ellerbeck said. The center also promotes other evidence-based practices that have been shown to reduce cancer rates, too, such as working with primary care providers statewide to increase colorectal cancer screening and HPV vaccinations.

“There’s some real winnable goals here,” Ellerbeck said. “If we’re ultimately successful we’ll put our colleagues out of business. We would love to see the day.”

Gaining NCI-Comprehensive Cancer Center designation would garner a slight increase in funding for the KU Cancer Center.

The center currently gets NCI grant funding of $1.4 million a year, Jensen said. That would go up to $1.54 million a year with comprehensive designation.

Another major benefit is recruiting, Jensen said. The higher designation helps attract outstanding people to the team.

If the comprehensive designation is not achieved, Jensen said, KU Cancer Center would likely try again at its next five-year renewal review.

What is the University of Kansas Cancer Center?

The University of Kansas Cancer Center spans cancer research, education and clinical care. Key entities include the KU Medical Center; the KU Lawrence campus and its School of Pharmacy; KU Health System (formerly KU Hospital); KU School of Medicine – Wichita and Salina; and the Midwest Cancer Alliance (MCA). The MCA is the outreach arm of the cancer center and extends the latest cancer research and clinical trials across Kansas, enabling patients to receive leading edge care close to home.

Source: KU Cancer Center

NCI designation funding

Institutional and regional commitment to University of Kansas Cancer Center NCI designation efforts, given since 2004.

• KU Endowment — $202 million

• KU — $72 million

• State of Kansas — $54 million

• Kansas Bioscience Authority — $47 million

• Johnson County Education Research Triangle — $41 million

• KU Health System (formerly KU Hospital) — $21 million

• Midwest Cancer Alliance — $15 million

• Children’s Mercy — $1 million

Source: KU Cancer Center