KU Hospital board supports cancer partners' name

The University of Kansas Hospital's board of directors passed a resolution supporting a new name for an advisory board that will guide the region's cancer initiative.

The hospital board gave its approval to renaming the Cancer Partners Advisory Board as the Midwest Cancer Alliance Partners Advisory Board at its Tuesday meeting. The new name and other contents of the resolution are subject to approval by the partners board, which is being formed to advise Dr. Roy Jensen, director of the KU Cancer Center.

Prior to Jensen's May 9 progress report to the KU Advancement Board, a flyer containing the names of the proposed Midwest Cancer Alliance Partners Advisory Board members was handed out. The proposed members, most of them hospitals and research organizations throughout Kansas and western Missouri, include Children's Mercy Hospitals & Clinics, Kansas State University, Saint Luke's Health System, Stormont-Vail HealthCare in Topeka, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Truman Medical Centers, the University of Kansas Hospital, and Via Christi Health System in Wichita. Also listed was the Kansas Bioscience Authority, which the Kansas Legislature created to reinvest roughly $600 million in tax revenue into the state's life sciences economy in the next 10 to 12 years.

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The resolution adopted by KU Hospital board stated that each of those institutions would be allowed to brand itself as a partner of the Midwest Cancer Alliance "for cancer research, education and any future joint collaboration activity overseen by the (advisory board)." However, the resolution states, that would only be the case until such time as the KU Cancer Center effort is renamed for a major donor.

"Partner institutions would continue to compete clinically and therefore would use their existing brand for cancer clinical activities," the resolution states.

KU Hospital has sole authority to brand its clinical cancer care under the KU Cancer Center name.

Jensen said the partners advisory board is designed to advise him on regional collaboration and philanthropic support needed in order for KU Cancer Center, part of KU Medical Center, to win designation as a comprehensive cancer center from the National Cancer Institute.

G. Richard Hastings, CEO of the Saint Luke's Health System, recently said that he envisions the advisory board members one day becoming co-owners of a 1 million-square-foot cancer care and research facility on the KU Medical Center campus.

During the recent Advancement Board meeting, however, KU Cancer Center officials circulated a set of frequently asked questions that stated, "There are no plans for such a building. There is no plan for joint ownership of any clinical building affiliated with the (partners advisory board)."

Collaboration is a possibility in bringing "high-dollar technology to the area, such as proton beam therapy," the document stated.

The idea is that by demonstrating cancer research and educational collaboration among key hospitals and research institutions in the region, KU Cancer Center will be able to win NCI designation, which will bring millions of dollars in annual NCI grants.

The NCI designation also is expected to help attract more top cancer subspecialists and cutting-edge cancer clinical trials to the region, making it unnecessary for area residents to travel to distant NCI centers for care.

As part of the KU Cancer Center effort, a network of cancer care sites throughout Kansas and western Missouri is being formed to allow broad access to clinical trials, the latest cancer-prevention tools and techniques, and continuing educational opportunities.

Launched with five charter hospital members earlier this year, that network was named the Midwest Cancer Alliance. It is not directly connected to the partners advisory board that may soon incorporate that name. All partnership advisory board members, however, will automatically get membership in the Midwest Cancer Alliance.