The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer. It is the only National Cancer Institute-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Alabama and a four-state region.

Dr. Barry Sleckman leads the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. (UAB)

“Fifty years of scientific discovery and clinical excellence have brought us to this special moment,” said Dr. Barry Sleckman, director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. “I am proud of and humbled by our outstanding team of clinicians and investigators, all of whom came to UAB with the same goal: to shape the future of cancer care.

“We recognize that none of today’s achievements would be possible without the lasting contributions of those who came before us,” Sleckman said. “They have set the stage for a very bright future at the O’Neal, a future that will relieve the cancer burdens and cancer disparities for all people in Alabama.”

The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center offers patients an array of treatment options from multidisciplinary clinics filled with experts from across cancer fields to the latest state-of-the-art technology. The center is home to an outstanding faculty of about 400 clinicians, scientists and clinician-scientists, many of whom are internationally and nationally recognized for their expertise in oncology.

In 2021, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center served 9,700 new cancer patients and enrolled 439 participants in clinical trials, which is one way physicians and scientists participate in efforts to improve cancer therapies, diagnostic techniques and prevention strategies.

“For five decades, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center has been a beacon of hope, comfort and care to patients from all over our state and surrounding states,” said UAB President Ray L. Watts. “I want to congratulate and thank Dr. Sleckman for his strong leadership and vision, as well as all of our clinicians, investigators and other faculty and staff who continue to conduct such innovative research and provide world-class cancer care.”

The beginning

In 1970, the UAB Cancer Program was organized, with Dr. John Durant appointed as director. In February 1972, two months after the National Cancer Act of 1971 was signed, Durant and his staff received a formal notice of $4.3 million in funding over three years from the National Cancer Institute. Upon receiving the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant, not only was Alabama’s first cancer center a reality, but it was given the status of an NCI-Designated Cancer Center.

In 1972, the NCI began to distinguish between cancer centers that met criteria for basic science research, centers that met criteria for clinical research and centers that met criteria for both. The NCI designated centers that met both sets of criteria as “comprehensive” and announced UAB as one of the first of eight Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation.

Investigators and physicians at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center have shaped cancer care for patients and physicians, Watts said. From bench to bedside, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center is at the forefront of improving cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and scientists and clinician-scientists at UAB have pioneered advances in chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and nutrition, Sleckman said. The center’s community outreach efforts provide medically underserved populations in the region with education and prevention programs.

Four years ago, the center became the beneficiary of a $30 million gift from the O’Neal family and shareholders – UAB’s largest single gift at that time – enabling the facility to transition from the previously named UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center to the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB.

Celebrating 50 years

The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center has been continuously funded by the NCI since its inception. The center was recently awarded a five-year Cancer Center Core Support Grant of $27,477,570 from the NCI, receiving the highest impact score in its history. This prestigious federal grant renewal provides support for UAB’s cancer research program through 2026.

This story originally appeared on the UAB News website.