The Medical University of South Carolina’s Hollings Cancer Center has earned designation from the National Cancer Institute, a federal distinction that no other institution in South Carolina holds.
MUSC celebrated the designation at a ceremony Monday in Charleston attended by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, former U.S. Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings and South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford, according to MUSC’s Catalyst newspaper.
Hollings joins 63 other cancer centers in the United States that carry the designation, MUSC said. The status comes with more than $7 million in federal funding to sustain and grow research at the university.
“Becoming an NCI cancer center is very difficult,” MUSC President Dr. Raymond Greenberg said at the ceremony, where he called the designation one of the most important achievements in the university’s history. “It’s a very competitive peer review process.”
What the NCI looked at
The institute based its decision on the center’s research facilities, its commitment to research, its leadership and its vision, according to MUSC.
NCI-designated centers are known for scientific excellence and for pulling different kinds of research together to focus on cancer, the university said. One way they reach patients is through clinical trials that offer new drugs and treatment protocols patients could not otherwise get.
That is the most immediate change for patients, MUSC said: more access to early clinical trials of promising new treatments.
“Our citizens don’t have to leave the state to find the most advanced research and protocols from an NCI center,” said Dr. Andrew Kraft, the center’s director.
The money and the score
Graham, who worked with Hollings on the effort, said the designation’s economic impact on South Carolina will exceed $65 million a year, according to MUSC. He also said Hollings Cancer Center earned the highest score ever given to an institution seeking designation in its first round.
“It is a very big deal,” Graham said. “I want the people in South Carolina to know what a big deal this is.”
“South Carolina is now in the major league of cancer research,” he added.
MUSC said the designation could also help the state’s economy by attracting public and private money for new work. According to the NCI, designated centers are a major source of discoveries about the nature of cancer and of better approaches to preventing, diagnosing and treating it, the university said.
A goal two decades in the making
The cancer center was named in 1993 for Hollings, a Charleston native who served as governor and as a U.S. senator. Hollings credited the people who work there.
“This is a true milestone for the Medical University of South Carolina,” Hollings said. “One can see that the cancer building is a winner, but now all in the state can know that the doctors and staff of the cancer center are winners.”
Greenberg said MUSC set the goal of NCI designation more than a decade ago under former President Jim Edwards, with Hollings’ support. MUSC Provost Dr. John Raymond said designation had been a top priority “for nearly two decades.”
Raymond credited Kraft and his predecessor as director, Dr. Carolyn Reed, along with the state’s congressional delegation, especially Hollings and Graham. He called designation “one of the pinnacle events for our university.”
Kraft said the recognition was earned over many years by researchers, clinicians and staff across the center and the university. He said it shows that MUSC’s researchers and physicians are leaders in discovering and developing new treatments and in carrying them from the laboratory to patients.
What comes next
Kraft said the center intends to share what it learns with other cancer centers and medical practices around South Carolina.
“By sharing what we know with other cancer centers and practices throughout our state, we can step up our war on cancer in South Carolina and beyond,” he said.
Graham said the designation reflects years of work by the center’s staff. “The NCI designation only comes to the best and brightest,” he said.
