NCI Renews Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Support Grant, Extends Comprehensive Status

Five-Year Award Now Totals $28 Million

ROCHESTER, Minn., July 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Mayo Clinic Cancer
Center (MCCC) received an additional five years of National Cancer Institute
(NCI) funding and re-designation as a comprehensive cancer center, according
to Robert Diasio, M.D., the center's director. Mayo Clinic has the only
NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center conducting research at three
distinct locations across the United States.

The NCI Cancer Center Support Grant award to MCCC totals more than $28 million
over five years for infrastructure and administrative support for cancer
center researchers across Mayo's three sites in Minnesota, Florida and
Arizona.

"The NCI renewal of Mayo's Cancer Center Support Grant ensures the continuity
of research programs that contribute to improved medical options for cancer
patients," Dr. Diasio says. "This NCI grant is key in enabling Mayo Clinic to
continue delivering outstanding care for its cancer patients."

The MCCC is headquartered in Rochester, Minn., with research campuses in
Scottsdale, Ariz., and Jacksonville, Fla. With NCI approval in 2003, MCCC
incorporated its cancer research activity at its Minnesota, Florida and
Arizona sites into a single, integrated institution.

"The NCI recognized the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center for excellence in basic and
clinical research, and for our contributions to cancer prevention, control and
population sciences," Dr. Diasio says. "This award enables Mayo cancer
researchers on all three of our campuses to build upon knowledge that leads to
changes in medical practice which means improved treatment opportunities for
our patients."

Within its scope as a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, the MCCC
designs and develops translational clinical studies that arise from
collaborations between scientists and physicians.

The 450 scientists and physicians of the MCCC faculty across all three sites
are organized into programs that focus on 12 key cancer research themes. They
include Women's Cancers, Neuro-Oncology, Hematologic (bloodborne)
Malignancies, Gene and Virus Therapy, Developmental Therapeutics, Genetic
Epidemiology and Risk Assessment, Immunology and Immunotherapy,
Gastrointestinal Cancers, Prostate Cancer, Cell Biology, Cancer Imaging, and
Cancer Prevention and Control.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice
in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for
patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the
patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers
and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in
Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.
Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each
year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to
www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit
www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource
for your health stories.

SOURCE Mayo Clinic

Karl Oestreich of Mayo Clinic, +1-507-284-5005 (days), +1-507-284-2511
(evenings), newsbureau@mayo.edu