UCI Wins Status as Designated Cancer Center

UC Irvine has been named a cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, a prestigious designation--shared by only a handful of other institutions in California--that is specifically intended to bring the fruits of basic research to patients’ bedsides.

The designation, which UCI has been working toward for five years, was the only one given by NCI this fiscal year and a coup for the relatively young university, which is bucking to become a top-level research institution. It comes with a three-year grant of about $3 million and is the first step in obtaining even more coveted status as a “comprehensive cancer center” such as UCLA or USC.

“It’s probably the most important thing to happen for the cancer program in the last 15 years,” said UCI Cancer Center Director Frank L. Meyskens Jr., of UCI’s new status. “On a national level, it’s of enormous importance.”

The designation “is a validation of the excellent cancer-related research and treatment-related activities that take place at UCI (and) it puts us in the major leagues along with other university-based cancer centers around the nation,” said cancer virologist Hung Fan, co-director of the center.

Fifty-four institutions in the United States are NCI-designated cancer centers, seven in California. UCI is the first in Orange County.

The designation is important not so much for grant money as for how it brings together a variety of disciplines and researchers in a common effort against a complex disease, said NCI and UCI officials. Much of the money will be spent on shared resources--such as a biostatistics, molecular biology and tissue-storage facilities--that individual research grants often do not cover.

Institutions that receive the NCI designation already receive the majority of their funding from other sources in the National Institutes of Health, for example, or from the American Cancer Society. UCI’s center already had a base of more than $18 million in ongoing grants and contracts, said spokeswoman Fran Tardiff.

At UCI, more than 100 faculty members and seven research programs will be involved in the center’s projects--from the basic research program looking at how cancer cells grow to the clinical oncology program, which conducts patient studies. The NCI award is “sort of the glue that holds a . . . much larger research base together,” said Margaret Holmes, chief of NCI’s Cancer Centers Branch. It is “a support grant allowing (researchers) to coalesce into a synergistic group” that NCI hopes will provide new insights into cancer and new applications in the clinical setting, she said.

For patients in this region, that may mean inclusion in studies offering access to new medications and innovative treatments not widely available previously in Orange County. Next year, for example, UCI will embark on a bone marrow transplantation program and stem-cell therapy, which involves a new way of harvesting marrow. UCI’s cancer center already enters more than 150 people annually in clinical trials.

Patients also will benefit from the multidisciplinary approach to management of cancer and the fact that UCI is becoming more active in a national network of prominent research institutions, Meyskens said.

It is not, however, always a short hop from basic research to clinical applications, researchers said.

“Some of the applications are right around the corner, but other applications may take years before we can bring them to treatment of patients,” Fan said.

Nevertheless, the very act of preparing for the NCI designation has helped to close the traditional gap between basic scientists and clinical researchers, and has already stimulated an important dialogue, he said.

Ten years ago, he said, the two sets of researchers tended to be “a little bit parochial” in their approaches, “interested in their own problems.” The division was reinforced by geography: Basic science researchers, by and large, were based at the main UCI campus in Irvine, whereas the clinical group was headquartered at the medical center in Orange.

“Before we could even think about starting this application (for the NCI designation), all of the cancer researchers . . . had to get together and understand the entire cancer picture at UCI,” Fan said.

Meyskens, known for his laboratory and clinical research on melanoma and chemical prevention of cancer, was the “driving force” bringing the two sides closer together, said Fan, a basic researcher who studies mouse leukemia. Meyskens was recruited five years ago from the University of Arizona specifically to create an NCI-class cancer center.

The NCI designation brings greater visibility to a cancer center already known for its clinical accomplishments in gynecological oncology, melanoma, urological cancers and head and neck cancers, Meyskens said. UCI also is known for cancer prevention research and basic research into the origins of cancer cells, growth factors, virology and molecular biology. In general, NCI’S Holmes said, the increased visibility can be expected to attract more high-quality investigators and a greater level of interest and investment from inside and outside a center.

Meyskens said it will strengthen UCI’s cancer services across the board and provide an overall boost to the institution. “UCI always was known for its basic research,” he said. “Where we were behind was in the clinical research areas.”

Cancer Center Components

Laboratory and clinical research conducted at UCI Cancer Center contributed to its receiving a cancer center designation from the National Cancer Institute. Here are the 12 units of the UCI Cancer Center and their activities:

AT UCI MEDICAL CENTER, ORANGE

* Cancer Center: Offers patient diagnosis and treatment, clinical research

* Human Tumor Tissue Shared Resource: Collects and characterizes tumor specimens

* Clinical Investigations Shared Resource: Coordinates, monitors patient trials

AT UCI CAMPUS, IRVINE

* Biostatistics Shared Resource: Studies design, statistical analysis of clinical research

* Molecular Biology Shared Resource: Synthesis, purification and analysis of substances for basic and clinical research

* Optical Biology Shared Resource: Video and laser imaging and manipulation

* UCI Medical Plaza: Cancer treatment on outpatient basis

* Beckman Laser Institute: Studies light and its interaction with cells and tissues

* Cancer Surveillance Program: Measures cancer incidence, conducts cancer control research

* Developmental Biology Center: Studies structure and function of macromolecules

* Research Unit in Animal Virology: Develops viral vaccines by researching cancer in animals

* Research Unit for Health Policy and Research: Fosters research related to medical care access and illness prevention and death among minorities, children and the elderly

CALIFORNIA CENTERS

Of the 54 cancer centers in the United States designated by the National Cancer Institute, UCI becomes the seventh in California. The other six are:

* Kenneth Norris Jr. Comprehensive Cancer Center at USC

* Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA

* La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation

* UC San Diego Cancer Center

* City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Duarte

* Armand Hammer Center for Cancer Biology at the Salk Institute, La Jolla

Source: UCI Cancer Center