LITTLE ROCK – After more than five years of steady progress in expanding research and outreach programs, the leading cancer institute in Arkansas is just about ready to apply for designation as a National Cancer Institute.
Leadership at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have said that a draft application this summer and a final application in September is “very reasonable.”
A successful designation as a National Cancer Institute would bring far-reaching health benefits and would also have an enormous economic impact in Arkansas.
In 2019 the legislature passed Act 181 to create a trust fund for private donations and public tax revenue to support the effort to achieve National Cancer Institute designation. Legislators also supported the institute by allocating revenue from medical marijuana taxes.
Initially, fund-raisers for the institute hoped to bring in $30 million in private donations to supplement the public funding. Earlier this year the head of the institute said that donations exceeded $40 million and were close to $45 million.
The institute has expanded its clinical trials to more than 300 this year and has hired 29 additional laboratory-based investigators. Those improvements helped the institute qualify for additional grants, which have increased from $6 million to more than $10 million a year.
To achieve designation as a National Cancer Institute (NCI) is very competitive and requires that a cancer hospital demonstrate high-quality research and treatment.
In the United States 72 medical centers have an NCI designation. The nearest are in Memphis, Dallas and Oklahoma City. The facility in Memphis is for children.
Two-thirds of the research grants awarded by the National Cancer Institute go to facilities with an NCI designation. The greater potential for research grants means that NCI designation would create an estimated 1,500 jobs in Arkansas and have an economic impact of $72 million a year.
Arkansas residents have already benefited from the UAMS effort to achieve NCI status because the Rockefeller Cancer Institute is expanding outreach into parts of the state that are medically under-served. A component of the institute’s application for NCI designation is outreach into rural areas, to increase screenings and the collecting of specimens for biopsies.
Since 2022 the institute has held 320 health fairs and community events across Arkansas, at which 25,000 people have been screened for breast, colorectal and lung cancer.
New Fiscal Year
July 1 marked the beginning of the state’s 2026 fiscal year. The state will collect an estimated $4.2 billion in income taxes this year, although about $789 million will be returned as refunds and claims. Income taxes generate 50 percent of state general revenue.
About 43 percent of the state’s revenue comes from sales taxes, which will amount to an estimated $3.6 billion this year.
Gross general revenue will be about $8.5 billion. More than $3.3 billion will be spent on education from kindergarten through grade 12. Higher education will receive $782 million in state aid.
