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Who We Are
National Cancer Institute Designation
The UNM Cancer Center is the only cancer center in the state of New Mexico that is designated by the National Cancer Institute. We are one of only 51 NCI-designated Comprehensive cancer centers in the nation. Comprehensive designation is the highest federal designation and rating for cancer centers.
Director’s Letter
Welcome message from
Cheryl L. Willman, MD
Director and CEO of The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center
In the News
Breaking stories from the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center
As a Comprehensive Cancer Center, We
We are home to the state’s largest team of cancer physicians: 146 doctors in every cancer specialty recruited from the finest medical schools in the country and the world. They are supported by our 600-person staff, who work with them to develop a personalized treatment plan for each one of our patients.
Working with our community partners, we built the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance, a statewide network that provides access to new cancer drugs and treatments in more than 175 clinical studies each year. The NCI considers the Alliance to be an “exemplary national model for cancer health care delivery.” Through the Alliance, people throughout New Mexico can have access to clinical trials. We are also developing our ORIEN project, which will allow all of our patients the opportunity to have their cancer tissues genetically sequenced. Using this sequencing, we will be able to match them to the most promising new treatments, now and in the future.
The UNM Cancer Center is on the leading edge of cancer research. Our 102+ scientists from places like Harvard, MIT and Memorial Sloan-Kettering, are annually supported by almost $36.2 million in federal, state and private funding.
Recognized throughout the nation for their breakthrough research in genomics, leukemia, nanotechnology, radioisotopes and drug discovery, they work with our research partners at Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories and Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, as well as with collaborators at New Mexico State University and other institutions to find treatments and cures for cancer.
Our scientists have developed new diagnostics and drugs for leukemia, melanoma and cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, liver, pancreas and brain. Since 2015, they have published 930 manuscripts, and promoting economic development, they filed 136 new patents and launched 10 new biotechnology start-up companies.
... of cancer physicians, scientists and healthcare professionals.
The physicians, scientists and staff have provided education and training experiences to more than 530 high school, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellowship students in cancer research and cancer health care delivery.
Our innovative education pipeline trains students from the high school level through the junior faculty level. Because we are part of the teaching hospital, your medical team may include fellows, residents, interns and other professionals-in-training under the instruction of our faculty.
As part of our service to New Mexico, we seek to discover and overcome the genetic, environmental, social, and behavioral factors that contribute to cancer disparities in New Mexico and the nation.
We are committed to building on a 50-year legacy of deep engagement with New Mexico communities to make cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and survivorship services more accessible to everyone in our state.
The UNM Cancer Center is:
- One of only 51 cancer centers in the United States to achieve Comprehensive designation by the National Cancer Institute.
- Recognized by the New Mexico State Legislature as the state’s official cancer center and received special commendation from the State Legislature in 2003 and 2005.
- Expanding our $100 million, 206,432 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Cancer Treatment and Clinical Research Facility to bring new cancer diagnostic and treatment modalities to New Mexico.
Mission, Goals, Accomplishments and Network
The Mudjekeewis (the Grizzly Bear), Spirit Keeper of the West and Chief Council of all Spirit Keepers and Animal Totems, is an indigenous Native American spirit symbol signifying responsibility, resourcefulness, intelligence, wisdom, introspection, physical and spiritual strength, and expertise.
A problem solver, Mudjekeewis uses his hands and his heart to find ways to do things that will benefit both himself and all of his brothers and sisters.
The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center has chosen the Mudjekeewis as our symbol because this Great Spirit Keeper represents our commitment to using our hands and our hearts to serve those whose lives have been touched by cancer with courage, knowledge, grace, and great ability.
To reduce the cancer burden and overcome the tremendous cancer health disparities in New Mexico and the nation through
- ground-breaking transdisciplinary research,
- translation of discoveries to community and clinical interventions,
- impactful bi-directional community engagement,
- education and training of a more diverse cancer workforce, and
- the delivery of exceptional cancer care.
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Enhance Transdisciplinary Research: Conduct outstanding transdisciplinary research, informed by bi-directional community engagement.
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Overcome Cancer Disparities: Discover and overcome genetic, environmental, social, and behavioral factors that contribute to cancer disparities in New Mexico and the nation.
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Translate Discoveries to Interventions: Translate novel discoveries to clinical and community interventions and facilitate access to cancer clinical trials across New Mexico.
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Educate, Train, and Mentor: Build a more diverse cancer workforce for New Mexico and the nation.
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Deliver Exceptional Cancer Care: At the Center and conduct cancer care delivery research throughout our catchment area.
- Designated as “the Official cancer center of the state of New Mexico” by the state legislature in 1971 and received special commendation from the state legislature in 2003 and 2005.
- Achieved recognition as a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in October 2005. We competitively renewed our NCI designation in 2010. In 2015, we achieved designation as a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest designation awarded by the NCI.
- Established formal research partnerships with Sandia National Laboratories (genomics, high speed computing, drug discovery, nanotechnology), Los Alamos National Laboratory (novel radioisotopes), Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (inhalation therapeutics, lung cancer prevention and research) and New Mexico State University (chemistry, drug discovery).
- Treats patients from every county in the state.
- Expanded our statewide cancer care network with collaborative clinical programs throughout the state.
- Created a wide variety of clinical and educational programs to reach out to all of our state’s multicultural populations, including outreach and training in Native American communities with the UNM Center for Native American health, and outreach to our Hispanic communities with Ventanilla de Salud and other programs.
- First to offer Tomotherapy in 2005 and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy in 2010. These newer technologies allow our radiation oncology team to deliver more effective radiation doses in far fewer treatments and to precisely target tumor tissues, thereby minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues.
- Achieved designation as one of only nine National Institutes of Health (NIH) Centers for Molecular Discovery and one of only 10 NIH National Centers for Systems Biology.
- Achieved designation as one of only seven dedicated Centers of Excellence in the National Cancer Institute’s Chemical Biology Consortium, under the NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics Program.
- Partnered with Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., to open a radioisotope production center in our Cancer Treatment and Clinical Research Facility. This center allows us to produce medically useful isotopes, which are a critical component of powerful cancer diagnosis and treatment methods.
- Opened a beautiful state-of-the-art Comprehensive Cancer Treatment and Clinical Research Facility in August of 2009. This five-story, $100 million, 206,432 sq. ft. facility is designed to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and their families in a healing, safe environment.
- Introduced or expanded 11 cancer programs to serve New Mexicans. We offer 17 cancer programs, including neuro-oncology, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, Phase I clinical trials, theranostics, thyroid and parathyroid surgery.
The UNM Cancer Center is building a statewide cancer care network with collaborative clinical programs in Las Cruces (with Memorial Medical Center), Silver City (with Gila Regional Medical Center), Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Farmington. We are developing new collaborative programs in Alamogordo and in Roswell/Carlsbad.
We are also pleased to be expanding services throughout the state. In FY2020, we took care of more than 13,000 patients from all 33 counties in New Mexico. (Fiscal Years run from July to June).
Senior Leadership
The Maurice and Marguerite Liberman Distinguished Endowed Chair in Cancer Research
Director and Chief Executive Officer, UNM Cancer Center
Distinguished Professor, UNM Departments of Pathology and Internal Medicine
Trained at Mayo Medical School, the National Cancer Institute, and UNM, Dr. Willman is an internationally known leukemia researcher. After discovering new leukemia-causing mutations in Hispanic and American Indian children, her team has identified more effective therapies which are being tested in national clinical trials. With UNM Engineering and Sandia National Laboratory scientists, she is also developing the field of nanotherapeutics, leading to the formation of a new biotechnology company in New Mexico. Under her leadership as Director and CEO for 14 years, the UNM Cancer Center has become one of the most pre-eminent Cancer Centers in the nation.
Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Chief Medical Officer and Chief of Division of Hematology/Oncology
Dr. Dayao serves in clinical and administrative functions at UNMCCC. Her areas of research interest are breast cancer, barriers to health care, and clinical trial accruals and symptom control. Her practice is almost exclusively devoted to breast cancer. Dr. Dayao serves as a local PI for multiple NCI cooperative group, pharmaceutical, and investigator-initiated clinical trials, and she serves on several national clinical research committees focused on breast cancer and quality of life. She has chaired the UNMH Cancer Committee, in which she oversees the Center-wide implementation and completion of standards of the Commission on Cancer.
The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Chair in Cancer Research
Associate Director for Basic Research, UNM Cancer Center
Professor, Division of Molecular Medicine, UNM Department of Internal Medicine
Trained in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and UC-Berkeley, Dr. Tomkinson is an international expert in the DNA repair mechanisms that prevent cancer by maintaining genome stability and in understanding how these pathways are perturbed in cancer cells. His work is leading to the development of new therapies which target these alterations in cancer cells. At UNM, he leads teams of laboratory scientists focused on fundamental cancer research.
The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Professor in Ovarian Cancer Research
Associate Director for Translational Research, UNM Cancer Center
Associate Professor, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, UNM Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
A gynecologic oncologist and cancer research scientist, Dr. Adams’ lab focuses on tumor immunology and the development of novel treatment strategies for ovarian cancer. Her lab recently demonstrated that PARP inhibition synergizes with CTLA4 immune checkpoint blockade in BRCA1 deficient ovarian cancer models. This work resulted in an investigator-initiated clinical trial in 2016, which has since been expanded nationally through the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN) and NRG. The translation of this work to clinical testing has spurred ongoing mechanistic studies in the lab focused on understanding tumor-tumor microenvironment interactions that modulate the efficacy of tumor-directed agents.
The Judy Putman Dirks Endowed Professor in Gynecologic Cancer Care
Associate Director for Clinical Research, UNM Cancer Center
Professor & Director, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology
Trained at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Muller is a physician-scientist who conducts research primarily focusing on ovarian cancer. She collaborates with basic scientists at UNM to find a novel component of a repurposed drug, R-ketorolac, that impedes cancerous cell growth and the spread of ovarian cancer. She and her colleagues developed the clinical trials that have recently reported on this novel component. Dr. Muller also serves as the principal investigator of the NCI Minority Underserved NCORP grant that helps to support the UNM Cancer Center research clinical trials network.
Associate Director for Cancer Population Sciences, UNM Cancer Center
Distinguished Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Epidemiology
Trained at Yale University, Dr. Berwick has worked in cancer prevention and etiology for the past 30 years. Before coming to The University of New Mexico, she worked at Yale University, the Cancer Prevention Research Institute, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Berwick has extensive experience in cancer genetics and germline variants in risk for melanoma. Having developed two molecular epidemiology laboratories (one at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and one at the University of New Mexico) she has extensive understanding of laboratory methods for molecular and genetic epidemiology.
The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Professor in Cancer Genomics
Associate Director for Shared Resources, UNM Cancer Center
Professor, Division of Molecular Medicine, UNM Department of Internal Medicine
Trained at UCLA and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Ness is a world-renowned expert on Myb proteins, a class of regulatory proteins that contribute to cancer onset and progression. He is also an expert in cancer genomics and is leading the development of next generation human genome sequencing and bioinformatics at UNM Cancer Center, which is now being applied to our cancer patients. He directs the UNM Cancer Center’s Shared Resources, providing access to high technology equipment for cancer research.
The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Professor in Cancer Cell Biology and Clinical Translation
Associate Director for Education, Training and Mentoring, UNM Cancer Center
Professor, UNM Department of Pathology
Trained at UCLA and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg Germany and an AAAS Fellow, Dr. Wandinger-Ness’s research is focused on GTPases, the cellular switches that control cell behavior—particularly cell adhesion and migration, two important characteristics of cancer cells. She leads a team of scientists and physicians who recently discovered a novel compound that inhibits GTPases in ovarian cancers and these agents are now being tested in ovarian cancer clinical trials. Dr. Wandinger-Ness is also a noted educator and mentor who guides the development of young physicians and scientists training in cancer research and she has received many teaching awards.
Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement, UNM Cancer Center
Associate Professor Family Community Medicine
Trained as a cultural anthropologist at The University of New Mexico, Dr. Sussman also serves as director of the Behavioral Measurement and Population Science Shared Resource at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center and as co-Principal Investigator of the ongoing GMaP Region 3 grant that addresses cancer disparities through training, education and research in the eight states that comprise the region. Dr. Sussman has designed and led numerous qualitative and mixed method research studies. His research focuses on primary health and cancer care delivery research and patient-provider counseling dynamics among health disparity populations in New Mexico.