“If you build it, they will come.”
Many people recognize this quote from “Field of Dreams,” the popular 1989 film starring Kevin Costner as an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball diamond in a cornfield. For the Eppley Cancer Center, this saying now stands for planned construction of a new cancer campus at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“This multidisciplinary cancer research and treatment campus will feature state-of-the-art facilities that will draw both patients and new faculty to UNMC,” said Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center. “The opportunity to collaborate with other Eppley Cancer Center faculty in a world-class setting will expand cancer research at UNMC, providing new innovative therapies for patients.”
UNMC already has purchased land adjacent to the southwest end of campus for construction of the Cancer Campus. It will feature a multidisciplinary cancer treatment and cancer clinical research facility. Patients will be able to consult with all appropriate cancer specialists including medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists, during one visit and receive a complete multidisciplinary treatment recommendation.
The new Cancer Center will have outpatient surgery suites, an infusion therapy center, and provide support services for all cancer patients such as genetics counseling, nutrition, physical therapy, survivorship programs and social services. It also will have special facilities to enable patients to participate in early phase clinical trials of new agents for cancer treatment and prevention.
In addition to a multidisciplinary clinic and cancer treatment facility, the new Cancer Center also will have a 10-story tower which will provide state-of-the-art research space for cancer center scientists. With each floor dedicated to specific diseases, the new Cancer Center will provide an environment that enables physicians and scientists to work collaboratively on the most difficult problems affecting patients.
“It is vitally important that scientists doing cancer research in the laboratory communicate with their physician partners caring for patients in the clinic,” Dr. Cowan said. “This collaboration and exchange of ideas ultimately benefits patients through the development of therapies specifically designed for each individual patient based on the molecular characteristics of their tumor.”
The comprehensive Cancer Center will be equipped with cutting-edge technology, which will allow scientists to identify the genetic abnormalities and molecular alterations in each cancer cell. Cancer physicians will use the information to develop individualized cancer treatment plans for each patient. This new integrated cancer research facility will enable the Eppley Cancer Center to take a national leadership position in the development of personalized treatments for cancer patients.
”Providing cancer care in a single-site facility dedicated to providing the entire scope of cancer treatment and therapy is the future of cancer care,” Dr. Cowan said. “Very few academic medical centers are positioned as well geographically, programmatically, and economically as UNMC. We can provide an all-encompassing cancer center with great access, and more importantly, outstanding expertise.”
The cancer campus will not only strengthen UNMC’s reputation as a leader in cancer research and patient care, but help in the quest to obtain National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Cancer Center designation. While the Eppley Cancer Center has been an NCI-designated Cancer Center since 1983, the prestigious NCI Comprehensive designation, given only to the top 30 cancer centers in the United States, will require expansion of the laboratory, clinical and population sciences research programs in the Eppley Cancer Center. Coupling this new campus with oncology specialists and services that already attracts patients from all 50 states and more than 20 countries, UNMC can emerge as one of the nation’s best centers for the treatment of cancer.
