KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The University of Kansas broke ground on a new cancer center Friday, May 23. They hope it will revolutionize cancer care and research as we know it and be a beacon of hope for cancer patients and their families.
“This building is an incredible milestone in our journey to be one of the best cancer centers in the country, if not the world,” University of Kansas Cancer Center Director Dr. Roy Jensen said.
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The University of Kansas’s cancer center became NCI-designated in 2012, and in 2022 became a comprehensive cancer center. But everyone involved in Friday’s groundbreaking said they’ve long dreamed of today, a building putting researchers and patient care side-by-side into one complex for the first time.
“When you’ve been given a terminal diagnosis, you want to be next to the people who are asking the question, ‘Have you ever thought about this?’ so they can translate to them, ‘Let’s try this,’” Dr. Steven Stites, University of Kansas Health System Medical Director, said.
The new center will be partially funded with $69 million secured by Kansas Senator Jerry Moran, the largest gift in University History, $125 million in total from the Sunderland Foundation and $75 million from the state of Kansas. The Hall Family Foundation also donated $25 million and community supporters provided the final match of $25 million.
“It’s been a long long haul we’ve gone through all of that with them and now we are here because of bipartisan support in the Kansas legislature breaking ground on a phenomenal facility that’s going to bring research and clinicians together to provide the very best in cancer care to people of this region,” Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said.
The work inside the new building will focus on cellular therapy, using the body’s own cells to fight cancer. Seven therapies have already been FDA approved, and they hope hundreds more are ahead.
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“You are truly helping turn research into results and patients into survivors,” non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma stage four cancer survivor Cici Rojas said.
While a cure for cancer eludes researchers, mortality is down 34% since 1991.
“All recovery from this dreaded disease starts with the power of hope. Today we celebrate hope,” Senator Moran said.
Last year, the cancer center treated patients from 45 states and several countries. The new facility will be located on the 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard campus in Kansas City, Kansas.
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