The AMC, a nonprofit research institute located in Lakewood, Colo., will continue as an independent foundation devoted to financial support for research in cancer causation, prevention and control at the University of Colorado.
The merger also is designed to help increase philanthropic community support for cancer research, according to Dr. Al Marcus, interim scientific director at AMC.
"Combining efforts with the university makes both organizations stronger," says Marcus. "Not only will this enhance our ability to share research approaches and resources, but it will increase grant funding and fundraising opportunities as well. The relocation will facilitate collaborations and provide access to the state-of-the-art facilities."
AMC was originally founded as the Jewish Consumptive Relief Society in 1904, a charitable hospital and research center that treated patients with tuberculosis. In the 1950s, when that disease was brought under control, the society changed its name to the American Medical Center and directed its sizable resources to the treatment and research of cancer.
Until 1989, AMC was a hospital as well as a research center, but then began focusing entirely on research and ways to control cancer, to help patients live longer and to prevent cancer before it starts.
