Mission Magazine - CTRC at UT Health Science Center retains its status as a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center

CTRC at UT Health Science Center retains its status as a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center

September 2009

Glenn Biggs, (right), first chairman of the Health Science Center Development Board, celebrates the NCI-CTRC designation with President Henrich.

The National Cancer Institute, the nation's top cancer research organization, has renewed the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio as one of its NCI-designated Cancer Centers for three years. The distinction comes with $5.4 million in new federal funding through 2012 to sustain and grow the cancer center's rapidly expanding research programs, now consisting of 140 scientists at work on a multitude of cancer projects.

"Keeping the words 'NCI-designated Cancer Center' next to our name is the Good Housekeeping seal of approval from the NCI," said Tyler Curiel, M.D., M.P.H., executive director of the CTRC at the UT Health Science Center and an internationally known ovarian cancer researcher. "We are enormously proud that the quality of our programs has merited this highly competitive designation without interruption since 1991."

The successful renewal follows a rigorous 10-month scientific and administrative evaluation of CTRC programs by a 16-member NCI-appointed review panel made up of directors and scientists from top cancer centers around the country.

"San Antonio and South Texas patients are the winners today, because an NCI-designated Cancer Center gives patients access to the latest, best and potentially most effective drugs and clinical trials to treat their disease," said William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, president of the Health Science Center. "The close association with the NCI allows NCI-designated Cancer Centers access to information and discoveries, including a pipeline of new treatment possibilities. That's why patients travel long distances to receive care here."

Texas has three NCI-designated Cancer Centers. The CTRC is the only one in South Texas and serves 4.4 million people in the high-growth corridor of Central and South Texas that includes Austin, San Antonio, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley.