Orlando, FL – October 20, 2009 – With breast cancer awareness month in full swing, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando is focusing renewed attention on the importance of cancer research to battle all types of cancer including breast cancer. M. D. Anderson – Orlando’s Cancer Research Institute has opened its doors of its new research facility in the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences building, officially becoming a part of Lake Nona Medical City.
The M. D. Anderson - Orlando Cancer Research Institute, which was previously housed on the Orlando Health campus in downtown Orlando, is now based on the 5th floor of the Biomedical Sciences building. This 30,000 square foot facility will triple the Cancer Research Institute’s wet lab space and provide thousands of additional square feet of work space. The Cancer Research Institute is currently conducting extensive research on treatments for many types of cancer including the development of a new treatment drug that has shown promising results for battling pancreatic cancer and the development of an over-the-counter prostate cancer diagnostic test with UCF researchers.
The presence of M. D. Anderson’s Cancer Research Institute on the Medical City campus will provide additional opportunities for collaboration with UCF and The Burnham Institute for Medical Research.
On October 28, M. D. Anderson – Orlando will kick off its 2nd annual Cancer Research Symposium, the first at the Lake Nona Medical City campus.
The two-day symposium will bring together researchers from M. D. Anderson – Orlando, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, as well as researchers from UCF College of Medicine, UCF Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, UCF Nanoscience Technology Center, and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Among the latest developments and advancements in cancer research that will be discussed include novel targeted therapies and the study of a DNA repair protein identified in breast cancer that may be responsible for drug resistance and metastasis, a new clinical trial for pancreatic cancer, and the use of nanoparticles as radioprotectants.
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, part of Orlando Health, is affiliated with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. U.S. News & World Report recently ranked M. D. Anderson Cancer Center as the top cancer treatment center in the U.S. and has ranked it as one of the top two cancer centers for the past 13 years. Orlando Health, a 1,780-bed community-owned, Florida not-for-profit organization established in 1918, annually serves nearly 2 million Central Florida residents and more than 4,500 international patients. More information is available at www.mdandersonorlando.org.