Beat Cancer for Kids

Cancer Center
The Eppley Institute was established in 1960 as part of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine with funds from the Eugene C. Eppley Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Nebraska. In 1983, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded the Institute a Cancer Center Support Grant that has been continually funded since then. In 1999, Dr. Kenneth H. Cowan was named director of the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases and of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center. Shortly thereafter, the Center was designated an NCI Clinical Cancer Center. Since then, the Cancer Center has conducted almost 400 clinical trials for leukemia and lymphoma, as well as breast, prostate, pancreatic, gastrointestinal and lung cancers.

UNMC Logo The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center is renowned for its basic research programs in chemical carcinogenesis, molecular, cellular, and structural biology and translational research in new therapies. Research programs focus on cancer genes and molecular regulation, molecular and biochemical etiology, experimental therapeutics and disease-oriented working groups.

  • Eppley Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Center (NCI) designated “Cancer Center” in the state of Nebraska, and the only NCI Center in the central region from North Dakota to Texas.
  • UNMC physicians are internationally recognized and lead one of the world’s top leukemia & lymphoma treatment programs, along with areas of expertise in breast, prostate, pancreatic, and head and neck cancer.
  • UNMC Chancellor and practicing physician Harold M. Maurer M.D. is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on rhabdomyosarcoma, a common cancer found in children under age 15.
  • UNMC is the only health science institution to have two representatives on the National Cancer Advisory Panel, appointed by the President of the United States.
  • Eppley Cancer Center is one of 19 members of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, which establishes guidelines for the treatment of all cancer disease.