Mission
One of the leading cancer centers in the nation, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center brings together some of the most exceptional physicians and scientists in the country to investigate and improve the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer.
The UNC Lineberger Board of Visitors serves in an advisory role to UNC Lineberger’s Director and works to assist the cancer center in reducing cancer occurrence and death in North Carolina and the nation. Our mission is fueled by collaboration across the population, basic and clinical sciences.
With research that spans the spectrum from the laboratory to the bedside to the community, UNC Lineberger faculty work to understand the causes of cancer at the genetic and environmental levels, to conduct groundbreaking laboratory research, and to translate findings into pioneering and innovative clinical trials.
History
In 1969, the UNC School of Medicine recognized the need for a collaborative cancer program, and the cancer center was established in 1974 under the leadership of Joseph S. Pagano, MD. The Lineberger family from Belmont, NC, provided the funding for the Center’s first stand-alone research building in 1984.
UNC Lineberger first received its National Cancer Institute designation in 1975 and became a Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1990. It is the only NCI-designated public cancer center in the state of North Carolina, and one of only 51 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the country. The N.C. Cancer Hospital, the clinical care home for UNC Lineberger physicians, was completed in 2009.
UNC Lineberger is the largest research entity at UNC, with more than 400 faculty members who hail from 40 departments from across campus, including the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, UNC School of Medicine, UNC School of Nursing, UNC School of Dentistry, and UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.
