The University of Kansas Cancer Center on May 23 broke ground on the future site of a new complex that will bring research and patient care into the same location for the first time in the center’s history.
“Today marks a pivotal moment in our efforts to address one of the greatest health challenges of our time: cancer,” Roy Jensen, vice chancellor and director of the KU Cancer Center, said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “With this new center, and the collaboration it enables, we intend to create a global destination for patient care and research.”
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, c’76, l’82, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, Gov. Laura Kelly and a host of other dignitaries attended the groundbreaking, which was followed by a celebratory event at KU Medical Center.
The new facility, which will be located on KU Medical Center’s 39th and Rainbow campus in Kansas City, will give patients access to cutting-edge clinical trials and therapies developed on-site. Physicians and researchers will be able to collaborate in real time on personalized treatment options and make them available to patients more quickly.
Construction of the new complex should conclude by late fall 2027.
In 2022, the KU Cancer Center was designated as a “comprehensive” cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. This is the highest level of recognition awarded by the NCI and is the gold standard for cancer centers. The KU Cancer Center is one of only 57 NCI comprehensive centers in the nation.
“We knew that (the comprehensive designation) wasn’t the culmination of our work,” Chancellor Doug Girod said at the groundbreaking. “Rather, it was an important milestone along the way to our next goal—which was to develop the facilities necessary to bring clinical and research capabilities together in the same place to provide better patient care and facilitate the development of new treatments and cures.”
KU Cancer Center’s new complex will support cellular therapy, which uses the body’s own cells to fight each person’s individual cancer with fewer side effects than traditional treatments. It will also house a cellular therapeutics Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratory that will expedite CAR-T cell therapy, a novel treatment that uses genetically re-engineered immune cells known as T cells to find and destroy cancer.
By bringing a cellular therapeutics GMP laboratory in-house, the costs and wait time for the creation of these specialized cells will be reduced. KU Cancer Center is the only cancer center in the region offering all seven FDA-approved CAR-T cell therapies. The newest therapy, dubbed “Triple Threat,” triples the number of molecular targets and is currently under evaluation via a Phase 1, first-in-human clinical trial initiated by KU Cancer Center investigators. The pipeline of potential additional therapies is in the hundreds, providing an exciting future in caring for numerous types of cancers.
“All recovery from this dreaded disease starts with the power of hope,” said Sen. Moran, who addressed the crowd at the groundbreaking. “Today, we celebrate hope.”
A culmination of giving
Funding from multiple sources—including federal and state funds as well as gifts from private foundations and donors—has made the new KU Cancer Center complex possible.
2023
- KU Cancer Center celebrates a $100 million lead gift from the Sunderland Foundation, at the time the largest ever received by KU and The University of Kansas Health System.
- U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, c’76, l’82, secures $43 million in congressionally directed spending to plan and help build research aspects of a new KU Cancer Center facility.
2024
- The Kansas Legislature approves and Gov. Laura Kelly signs into law a $75 million matching-grant appropriation for the project.
- The Sunderland Foundation provides an additional $25 million gift to support the state of Kansas match.
- The Hall Family Foundation, which has a long history of giving to support cancer research, makes a $25 million gift, also in support of the match.
- Private donors, foundations and community members provide $25 million in supplemental gifts to complete the state match.
- Sen. Moran secures a federal appropriation of $10 million for the KU Cancer Center and another $10 million earmark for acquisition of sophisticated cardiovascular laboratory equipment.
- The Cinelli Family Foundation gives $10 million to establish a Good Manufacturing Practice laboratory in the KU Cancer Center’s new building.
2025
- The Bloch Family Foundation and Linda Lyon, daughter of Richard and Annette Bloch, provide a $10 million challenge gift to encourage additional giving.
Kristi Birch is assistant editor in the KU Medical Center Office of Communications.
