University of Virginia Cancer Center


University of Virginia Cancer Center is an NCI-designated Cancer Center affiliated with the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the UVA Health System. UVA Cancer Center is ranked 30 of the top 50 cancer specialty programs, placing the cancer center within the top 2 to 3 percent of programs nationwide. It is one of only two NCI-designated cancer centers in Virginia.
UVA Cancer Center has more than 180 faculty members and $75 million dollars in funded research annually.

History

The University of Virginia Cancer Center was founded in 1984 and has been NCI-designated since 1987. This status is reviewed every five years. It was most recently redesignated by the NCI and awarded a $15 million grant in 2017, and the center stated that it intends to pursue designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by 2020, which requires a wider array of research. Currently, there are no Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the state of Virginia
Thomas P. Loughran Jr. succeeded Michael Weber as director in 2013 after twelve years of service.
UVA Cancer Center is a partner in the Cancer Moonshot 2020 program organized by the Obama administration. The Lung Cancer Biospecimen Resource Program is a collaborative resource hosted at UVA.
UVA is one of approximately 60 centers nationwide that are Centers for Excellence for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome.
In 2016, a $112 million partnership was announced between the UVA Cancer Center and the Inova Schar Cancer Institute to develop a regional institute in Northern Virginia.

Locations

Patients are treated at the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center and satellite clinics in several cities such as Augusta County, Culpeper, Farmville, Virginia, and Orange. The ECCCC is a 150,000 sq ft facility and cost $74 million. It was dedicated in 2011 and named for state senator Emily Couric, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2001.

Research

The center is divided into several collaborative research working groups:
UVA Cancer Center is a member of the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network, a group of 16 institutions nation-wide dedicated to cancer research, with the sharing data to further the development of personalized medicine and expedite access to clinical trials. Patients can become "Partners in Discovery" by consenting to donate leftover tumor tissue from surgery and information about their health and cancer treatment. This is added to the database which is accessible to scientists at participating institutions.

Notable people