UR awarded $29 Million for Cancer Research

UR Medicine’s Wilmot Cancer Institute is continuing its practice-changing research into cancer side-effects and symptom management with a coveted $29 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The award is the largest single grant currently funded at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The NCI selected Wilmot’s Cancer Control and Supportive Care research program as a hub for the National Community Oncology Research Program or NCORP. As such, the Wilmot team is charged with designing and managing clinical studies to be carried out at oncology clinics at more than 1,000 NCORP affiliates in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

The grant not only honors longstanding research strength, but assures that the Wilmot Cancer Control program remains a leader for tackling issues of great concern to patients — nausea and chemo brain, neuropathy, fatigue, fitness and the use of supplements to quell common chemotherapy side effects and symptoms related to cancer and its treatments.

With nearly 17 million cancer survivors in the U.S., which is an estimated 5% of the entire population, improving the lives of patients and survivors is a top priority, said co-principal investigators Gary Morrow, Ph.D., M.S., and Karen Mustian, Ph.D.  Both are dean’s professors in the UR Department of Surgery, and leaders at Wilmot.

“It’s always been our mantra to help good people through lousy times,” Morrow said. “This new funding allows us to seamlessly continue our work while extending the mission to reach even more people on a national scale and throughout Rochester and the upstate New York region.”

“The Wilmot Cancer Institute is a tremendous asset to the community,” said University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf. “This grant affirms our unquestioned leadership in the field of cancer control and adds another valuable component to what makes the University a great research institution.”