[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 8646-8647] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THE UCSD CANCER CENTER: WORLD-CLASS RESEARCH, GAINING WORLD-CLASS PRIVATE SUPPORT ______ HON. RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM of california in the house of representatives Thursday, May 18, 2000 Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the attention of my colleagues the exciting, new research opportunities being pursued by the UCSD Cancer Center in La Jolla, California, and to recognize some very generous families and organizations for the extraordinary private support they have recently pledged to provide to the Center. The UCSD Cancer Center is now undergoing a tremendous period of growth and resurgence. Directed by the distinguished Dr. David Tarin, the goal of the Center is to research and help deploy the many new treatments and protocols now being developed to fight and prevent cancer. Through the leadership of people like Labor Appropriations Chairman John Porter, the Republican majority in Congress has successfully raised the bar of investment in health research and cancer research as a major national priority of the people of the United States. Now this research, in many cases, requires a next step: the testing and evaluation of treatments and medicines through clinical trials. Such trials are a major focus of the UCSD Cancer Center, so that we can bring together medical professionals, researchers and patients to the benefit of everyone. By consolidating research and treatment at the UCSD Cancer Center, we will learn more about treating and preventing this horrible scourge of cancer, in a way that preserves and enhances the dignity and peace of cancer patients, their families and their loved ones. Such cancer is not inexpensive. Conversely, though, I believe that we cannot afford not to invest in such a center. It gaining increasing recognition from the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, directed by my friend Dr. Rick Klausner. It is the focus of a regional effort by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, to apply local tobacco settlement funds to combat and prevent cancer. I want to pay particular attention to several families who have put forth their own treasure to the improvement of this vital Center. Within the past several months, private gifts totalling $47 million have been pledged for this purpose. In thanksgiving for a gift of $20 million by San Diego Padres majority owner John Moores and his wife Rebecca, the center will be named the John and Rebecca Moores UCSD Cancer Center. Longtime investment banker and attorney Jerome Katzin and his wife Miriam have pledged another $15 million. And many more gifts large and small, by San Diego's leading families and by people whose lives have been touched by cancer, have been pledged to this Center. Mr. Speaker, this Center is gaining national recognition in its field. As a strong supporter of cancer research and of this Center, I want to [[Page 8647]] bring both the Center and its private family supporters to the attention of my colleagues in Congress and to the country. I commend my colleagues to read the attached article from the San Diego Union-Tribune, describing both the Center and the gifts of its supporters in greater detail. [From the San Diego Union-Tribune, May 5, 2000] World-Class Cancer Center Planned at UCSD (By Cheryl Clark) A regional cancer center financed by gifts of $47 million from local families is to be built in La Jolla, consolidating research and treatment in what UCSD officials hope will become one of the nation's best places for care. The plan is to bring researchers, clinicians, prevention specialists and educators under one roof in an effort that UCSD Chancellor Robert Dynes called a ``bench-to-bedside approach to conquering cancer.'' ``San Diego deserves a cancer center that ranks among the world's best, and UCSD is the logical place,'' Dynes said yesterday. University officials hope the coordinated center eventually will receive the higher level and prestigious ``comprehensive'' designation from the National Cancer Institute. That label would not only attract more qualified scientists and clinicians, it would be a magnet for funding for clinical trials of cancer compounds from the federal government, private foundations and pharmaceutical companies. The announcement follows several ambitious and far-reaching developments recently in the San Diego medical community focusing on cancer research and treatment. ``We can now see on the horizon the realization of a dream,'' said Dr. David Tarin, associate dean for cancer affairs and the new center's director. ``At the moment, we are scattered at 24 sites and at two hospitals.'' The largest of the gifts was $20 million pledged by Padres majority owner John Moores and his wife, Rebecca. The center will be named the John and Rebecca Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The Moores were unavailable for comment, but in a written statement they said, ``When we lived in Houston, we observed the profound impact of a vigorous, highly regarded cancer center equally dedicated to research and patient care.'' Another large contributor was Jerome Katzin, an attorney and former investment banker with Kuhn, Loeb & Co./Lehman Brothers for 35 years. He and his wife, Miriam, pledged $15 million. Officials hope to start construction next year, following approval by the University of California Board of Regents. The facility will be built on 2.4 acres southeast of Thornton Hospital near the Shiley Eye Center and the Perlman Ambulatory Care Center. The five-story structure would house laboratories, outpatient treatment areas and conference and office space for teaching. Patients requiring acute care would be treated at other area hospitals such as Thornton or UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest. Dynes, Tarin and David Bailey, dean of UCSD's School of Medicine, said they are halfway to their fund-raising goal. They anticipate the project will cost $75 million to build and an additional $25 million to support clinical trials and treatment programs. They said they are confident they will raise the remaining $53 million. Numerous physicians and patients have criticized the region's existing cancer treatment resources, saying some patients who want to try certain experimental chemotherapies have to travel to larger programs in Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Boston or New York. UCSD officials said they have long wanted to enhance their cancer program. Two years ago their application for National Cancer Institute funding received poor marks and was rejected, in part because evaluators said UCSD lacked a coordinated system by which UCSD and regional molecular biology research is translated to clinical care. UCSD also was criticized for its lack of a formal vehicle for treating cancer in children. Plans to merge UCSD's pediatric program with that at Children's Hospital have fallen apart several times. ``It was mandated by the NCI that children should be included in clinical trials,'' Tarin said. ``We want to make that a major component.'' Bailey said he is having conversations with Children's Hospital and hopes to finally have an agreement. Blair, Sadler, Children's president and chief executive officer, said such a collaboration would be ``an ideal marriage'' because Children's now has about 200 pediatric cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials and is following UCSD is in a unique position to work on all sorts of common cancers, Tarin said, especially those that are not more prevalent in the San Diego area, such as uterine and cervical cancer and melanoma, which can be caused by overexposure to the sun. ``By assembling everything in one place, in a single building, we hope that the whole of our endeavor will become more than the sum of several parts, and that delivery of care will be a model for other communities to build upon,'' Tarin said. ``We need to understand the scale of this venture,'' he said. ``Fifteen hundred people every day will die of this disease. That may not sound like a great number, but it represents about five jumbo jet planes crashing, and that would be big news.'' UCSD is not the only major medical system trying to develop a cancer center. Seven months ago, cancer experts with the Scripps organization announced plans to build one and to apply for the NCI's ``comprehensive'' designation. But UCSD appears to be the furthest along. Last week, NCI awarded UCSD's Dr. Thomas Kipps, a cancer immunologist, $16.5 million to direct a coordinated attack against chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common blood cancer among adults, at nine institutions around the country. Also under way is an effort, spearheaded by Tarin, to use $100 million of the $1 billion in settlement money from tobacco litigation to organize a regional collaboration of all cancer centers. That effort, advocated by county Supervisors Ron Roberts and Dianne Jacob, is in the planning stages, and a consultant was hired for $500,000 to write a report about what would be required to make that happen. Roberts, who attended the news conference yesterday where architectural plans for the cancer building were unveiled, said: ``I don't think we ever assumed there wouldn't be rivalry between the institutions (Scripps and UCSD). But our dream was that we could link them regionally in a way they'd never been before. ``Our dream was that we could compete with the Boston, Houston and New York cancer centers in providing services. But we have a long way to go.'' Dr. Ernest Beutler, head of the Scripps molecular and experimental medicine department and chairman of the new Scripps cancer center's board of governors, said he doesn't see the two cancer center efforts ``as a competitive thing.'' ``I don't think there could be too many people trying to make a dent in the cancer problem,'' he said. Beutler declined to say how much Scripps has received in donations or whether Scripps and UCSD might be competing for the same philanthropic dollars. ``There will be areas where we certainly want to work with UCSD, which has some very good people,'' he said. ____________________