University of Iowa cancer center retains esteemed designation, lands $12.5 million

IOWA CITY — Marking its 20th anniversary as a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center announced Tuesday it has secured another five-year renewal and $12.5 million more in cancer-research funding.

Holden — first designated a cancer center in 2000, earning the “comprehensive” distinction the following year — is on its fourth renewal of the “highest designation a cancer center can receive,” according to ts director, George Weiner.

Where all of the nation’s 71 cancer centers boast scientific leadership, research and resources, the 51 with the “comprehensive” distinction have “an added depth and breadth of research, as well as substantial transdisciplinary research” bridging multiple scientific areas.

The national institute has labeled centers in 36 states, clustered on the East Coast and in California. Holden is the only one in Iowa, and no comprehensive cancer centers are in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Minnesota has two: The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Rochester and the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

With the grant renewal, the distinction has afforded UI’s Holden center about $63 million, including the next four years of funding. “This funding renewal allows us to continue to serve the state by conducting innovative research that will reduce the burden of cancer for Iowans,” Weiner said in a statement.

The funding supports four research programs:

1. Cancer genes and pathways

2. Experimental therapeutics

3. Free radical metabolism and imaging

4. Cancer epidemiology and population science

In addition to research, Holden will use its renewed grant to train and educate more cancer scientists; increase community outreach and engagement; manage and enlist clinical trials and collaborate, such as with the Iowa Cancer Consortium. With that group, Holden now is focused on Iowa’s cancer issues — like rural and racial cancer disparities, obesity-related cancers and cancers tied to environmental exposures.

A 2021 Cancer in Iowa report — produced by the Iowa Cancer Registry in the UI College of Public Health — projects 18,900 new invasive cancers will be diagnosed in Iowa residents this year, with breast cancer being the most common among women and prostate cancer the most common among men. Based on data between 1973 and 2016, an estimated 154,410 Iowans either are living with cancer or have survived it. And a projected 6,400 Iowans will die this year from cancer — with lung being the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women.

Recent research has uncovered disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes. Black Iowans have the highest mortality rate for every major cause of death — except suicide and liver disease, but including cancer. That has life expectancy for Iowa’s Black population at 74.8, compared with more than 79 for white Iowans.

“Our strong culture of collaboration and the unique strengths of our diverse research teams allow us to continue to improve cancer care for the people of Iowa,” Weiner said. “Cancer patients in Iowa have access to a growing number of early phase clinical trials, including studies based on basic science emerging from Holden labs, that are not available anywhere else.”

Grant renewal is based on a rigorous review, and Holden earned an “outstanding” rating. Holden additionally earned an “exceptional” rating — the highest possible — for “transdisciplinary collaboration and coordination” for the center’s strength in cross-disciplinary research. Weiner himself — having led the center for more than two decades — was rated “exceptional” for his “strong, experienced leadership and unwavering commitment.”

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