Cancer center receives $7 million federal grant

Tommy G. Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, presented a $7 million federal grant Sept. 12 to Dean Philip Farrell of the UW Medical School for construction of additional new space for the university’s Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC).

The grant is composed of $4 million from the National Center for Cancer Resources and $3 million from the National Cancer Institute. It will provide funding to house interdisciplinary prostate cancer research on one of four new Cancer Center floors planned for the HealthStar Interdisciplinary Research Complex (IRC), which is scheduled for groundbreaking in late 2004/early 2005.

Located adjacent to the Clinical Sciences Center that houses the UW Hospital and Clinics as well as existing UWCCC research space, the IRC will bring together cancer researchers in the clinical and basic sciences in an interactive environment with the latest technology.

The announcement of this federal grant is the first step toward naming the UWCCC after the late Paul P. Carbone. Carbone, who died in February 2002 at the age of 70, served as director of the UWCCC from 1978 until 1997.

The UW Foundation, with the input of the Paul P. Carbone, MD Memorial Foundation, plans to raise an additional $10 million in private philanthropy to rename the Cancer Center – the Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“Dr. Carbone’s legacy here in Madison and around the world as a caregiver, teacher and cancer researcher is nothing short of monumental,” said George Wilding, acting director of the UWCCC. “It is most fitting that our cancer center bear his name. The integration of cutting edge research with world class clinical care at this cancer center is the culmination of his vision.”

Carbone, who came to UW–Madison from the National Cancer Institute in 1976, achieved national recognition for his work in the treatment and cure of Hodgkin’s disease, development of new chemotherapy drugs and adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. For this achievement, he shared the Lasker Prize for Medicine in 1972. In 2000, he was presented with the Folkert O. Belzer Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing outstanding and enduring contributions in academic medicine at the UW Medical School.

An integral part of the UW Medical School, the UWCCC unites more than 200 physicians and scientists who work together in translating discoveries from research laboratories into new treatments that benefit cancer patients.