Doug Girod, executive vice chancellor of the Kansas University Medical Center, briefs the Kansas Board of Regents on the school's efforts to achieve comprehensive

Topeka ? The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday approved a resolution in support of Kansas University Medical Center’s efforts to seek designation as a “comprehensive cancer center” by the National Institutes of Health.

That’s a step higher than the “national cancer institute” designation KUMC received in 2012, and it requires higher levels of achievement in research, treatment and public policy, said Doug Girod, executive vice chancellor of the medical center.

“Comprehensive programs just have a higher, broader level of that, and a higher impact on their regions,” Girod said.

KUMC is currently the only major cancer center between St. Louis and Denver, and between Dallas and Omaha. Within its “catchment” area, which includes all 105 counties in Kansas plus 10 counties in Missouri, Girod said there are on average 26,000 new cancer diagnoses each year and 10,700 cancer deaths.

The higher designation would qualify KUMC for additional research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Girod said, but the more important impact would be on the overall health of Kansas residents.

Among other things, Girod said, achieving the higher status requires showing that KUMC is helping reduce the incidence of cancer in the region.

“We have to show that we have a population impact, that we have the ability to reduce the cancer burden within our region,” Girod told the Regents.

That will be a challenge, Girod said, because Kansas has been declining in its overall health ranking in recent years, as measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And he said a large part of that is due to the lack of progress in reducing smoking and other forms of tobacco use.

In 1999, he said, Kansas was ranked eighth in the nation for overall health of its residents. Today, he said, it ranks 27th.

“Our smoking rate is going in the wrong direction as well,” he said. “In 1999 we were eighth in the United States. We’re currently 31st.”

He said smoking-related health problems cost the state $1.12 billion a year, including $196 million in the state’s Medicaid program alone.

While all of the university campuses are moving toward becoming totally tobacco-free, with the eventual goal of banning all tobacco use in university buildings, residence halls and outdoor areas, Girod said the state should do more by increasing its cigarette and tobacco taxes.

He said KUMC supports Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to raise the cigarette tax by $1.50 a pack, noting that a 10 percent increase in cigarette taxes has been shown to reduce adult tobacco use by 4 percent and youth usage by 7 percent.

But he also said at least some of the revenue from the higher tax should be reinvested by funding smoking cessation programs. Brownback’s proposed budget calls for putting all the revenue from that tax into the state general fund to help fill the state’s projected budget shortfalls.

“I’m concerned about where we’re going with the health of Kansas,” Regents Chairman Kenny Wilk said. “And I think there are some thing we can do about it, and I think this is a step in the right direction.”

Girod said KUMC was fortunate to receive its national cancer center designation on its first application because only abut half of the institutions that apply are able to do that. But only about one-fourth of all applicants for designation as a comprehensive cancer center achieve that on their first application.

He said the resolution of support from the Regents was needed before KUMC could proceed with the application. He said the school expects to file the application in September 2016, and it anticipates hearing a decision in 2017.