Enquirer: Cincinnati vies for NCI cancer designation

The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center is focused on building a premier cancer center for the Great Cincinnati community.

Comprised of a collaboration between UC, UC Health and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Cancer Center aims to move discoveries from the laboratory into the clinic and community to improve clinical care in a meaningful way. 

Part of reaching this goal includes achieving designation as a National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer center. NCI designation is a grant mechanism that would provide millions of federally-funded dollars to the Cancer Center and region to address cancer through research, clinical trials, community outreach and more.

The Cincinnati Enquirer highlighted the Cancer Center's efforts to achieve NCI designation.

Syed Ahmad, MD, and William Barrett, MD, University of Cincinnati Cancer Center co-directors, told the Enquirer the Cancer Center is making significant progress on achieving NCI designation. This has included realignment and a better understanding of the infrastructure needed to achieve the designation, making cancer care the university's top priority and recruiting top talent from across the country.

"We're right about to go over the peak of the mountain," Ahmad said. "For the longest time, cancer was always a theme of the university, but not the theme. And now it's the theme."

"Children's Hospital established that you can absolutely have medical excellence in Cincinnati," Barrett added. "Their ascent was over about a 10-year period when they went from being a very respectable children's hospital to being at the very top nationally. And they did it largely around recruitment, identifying the stars and bringing them here. You can recruit in Cincinnati because it's such a great place to live."

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Featured photo at top of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Dr. Emily Daugherty with a patient. Photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Marketing + Brand.