By WAYNE WASHINGTON - wwashington@thestate.com
The Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina has been designated a National Cancer Institute, a nod that brings prestige and $8 million in funding for administrative and equipment costs.
There are only 64 National Cancer Institute centers in the United States. The Hollings Cancer Center is the only NCI-designated center in South Carolina. Previously, the closest NCI-designated facilities were in North Carolina in Winston-Salem, Chapel Hill and Durham.
“Our citizens don’t have to leave the state to find the most advanced research and protocols from an NCI center,” said Dr. Andrew Kraft, director of the Hollings Cancer Center. “We have one right here in our backyard.”
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., traveled to Charleston on day to announce the center’s NCI designation.
“The NCI designation only comes to the best and brightest,” Graham said. “The Hollings Cancer Center will now take its place among an elite group of institutions in the major leagues of cancer research.”
The National Cancer Institute is a division of the National Institutes of Health, which distributes millions of dollars each year to universities, hospitals and foundations for health-related research.
NCI-designated facilities are expected to be leaders in cancer research and treatment.
Kraft said the designation’s resulting $8 million in funding, which will be given to the center in chunks of $1.6 million per year for five years, will be used for facilities, equipment and salaries.
But the center won’t be the sole beneficiary of the NCI designation, MUSC officials said.
They pointed out the NCI designation will increase patient access to clinical trials, which can offer new treatment options in difficult cases.
The university said the designation also should help the Hollings Cancer Center attract top researchers and additional research funding.
Kraft said the NIH sets aside a separate pool of money NCI-designated facilities can compete to receive.
MUSC pulled in $101 million in research funding from the NIH last year. That total represented half the research money the university received.
MUSC has made some high-profile strides in cancer research, including:
• Discovering new procedures that could increase the accuracy of testing for bladder cancer
• A study showing the importance of attitudes and beliefs in the use of a vaccine to prevent a disease that can lead to cervical cancer
• Research showing the risk of cancer from exposure to radiation during a computed tomography (CT) for heart disease has been significantly overstated
• A study showing people with skin cancer could have a higher risk of developing another form of cancer
Kraft said the NCI designation is one people across the state, not just those at MUSC, can take pride in.
“It recognizes that the state has gotten together to support cutting-edge research,” he said.
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