UNMC and Nebraska Medicine physicians and scientists will have additional resources to aggressively pursue the development and testing of new therapies for pancreatic cancer, thanks to a budget package passed by the Legislature and signed Monday by Gov. Pete Ricketts.
The budget package includes $15 million in one-time funding for the UNMC Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence. That funding would be matched by $15 million in philanthropic funding. Already, Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center pancreatic cancer researchers are supported by $8 million in annual funding from the National Cancer Institute.
"We are extremely grateful to the Legislature and to Gov. Ricketts for this support," UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, said. "This funding will provide UNMC with critically important new resources for our scientists and physicians to develop and test new screening modalities and therapies for pancreatic cancer, which in many cases will be applicable to other solid tumors such as breast, prostate and ovarian cancer."
Originally proposed in a bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Kolterman, the funding for the pancreas cancer center was woven into the mid-biennial budget package during the legislative process. The $15 million will be funded through the Health Care Cash Fund. Kolterman’s wife, Suzanne, died from pancreatic cancer in 2017.
"We are grateful to Sen. Kolterman for being a champion of this initiative, as it will provide real hope for the patients and families who will unfortunately be afflicted with pancreatic cancer," said Ken Cowan, MD, PhD, director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
Pancreatic cancer is among the most lethal cancers, in part because it is typically diagnosed after it has spread to other organs and systems. The disease kills 200 Nebraskans annually.
In addition to the pancreas cancer center funding, the budget package signed by Gov. Ricketts also included $25 million for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural innovation facility. The governor also approved a $20 million investment in an expanded statewide student internship program proposed by Nebraska’s chambers of commerce and $20 million for a public-private partnership to enhance national defense research in support of U.S. Strategic Command and other entities. The university supported all of these proposals.
This week will be crunch time for many other Legislative initiatives for this session. Still awaiting passage by the Legislature and consideration by the governor are American Rescue Plan Act funding for the Healthier Rural Nebraska initiative that would expand UNMC programs on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus, as well as other bills that would providing on-going support for those expanded UNMC programs at UNK and additional behavioral health funding to expand the behavioral health workforce through the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN). The university supports these proposals, as well.