Based in midtown Detroit, the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
is committed to a future free of cancer. The Institute has held an NCI
designation as a comprehensive cancer center since 1978. The Institute
supports over 100 physician-scientists, 300 researchers, five research
programs and 10 core facilities. Fifteen multidisciplinary medical teams
treat more than 6,000 new patients annually in two ambulatory facilities
and a cancer-only, freestanding inpatient hospital with 120 beds. Karmanos
is the only independent cancer hospital in Michigan. Our scientific
research programs include:
- The Breast Cancer Program, which is dedicated to the
study of breast cancer progression, mechanisms of tumor growth and its
control, the genetic aberrations of the disease, possible dietary prevention
and the improvement of therapy.
- Developmental Therapeutics, which focus on a better
understanding of drug pathways and finding ways to improve the prediction
of response. It includes a large, NCI-funded Phase I clinical trials
program and a developing imaging program.
- Molecular Biology and Genetics, which focuses on
mechanisms of genomic instability encompassing studies of chromatin
structure, cell cycle checkpoint control, transcriptional regulation
of signal transduction and post-translational control mechanisms.
- Population Studies and Prevention, which seeks to
advance our understanding of the determinants of cancer in metropolitan
Detroit’s diverse population in an effort to decrease racial and ethnic
disparities.
- Proteases and Cancer, which concentrates on
determining the functions of proteolytic enzymes in malignant cancer
progression.
Our programs are organized to integrate basic, translational and
clinical research with population research-based cancer control activities.
Our shared resources include Bioinformatics, Cancer Center Informatics,
Behavioral Studies and Field Research, Biostatistics, Clinical Trials Office,
Confocal Imaging, Flow Cytometry, Genomics, Human Tissue and Pathology,
and Pharmacology.
Because Detroit is an urban, industrial setting with a heavily diverse
population, the Karmanos Cancer Institute was chosen to participate in the
national Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. Metro
Detroit houses the nation’s largest population of Arab-Americans in the
United States, and the city is almost 80 percent African American. This
kind of diversity has allowed the Institute the opportunity to offer
innumerable scientific, clinical and community outreach programs to citizens.
In 2005 alone, 4,875 patients were placed in clinical trials, including 649
in therapeutic trials, and of these, 32 percent were patients from minority
groups. Karmanos is affiliated with Wayne State University, one of three
constitutionally autonomous major state universities in Michigan, with annual
research expenditures in excess of $180 million. |
