History

Here’s what our history means for your care.

We place cancer information in your hands.

From our first days, we developed one of the country’s first cancer information services, helping individuals and communities understand cancer risks and prevention. We continue to produce up-to-the-moment information on cancer screening, care, and clinical trial opportunities.

We earn the highest recognition for combining research and care.

Since the year 2000, Holden has been designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. Only a small number of centers around the country have a history of combining caring and research to receive this level of achievement.

We create programs that are unmatched for excellence.

Holden is proud of its SPOREs. These are Specialized Programs of Research Excellence. We received our first SPORE grant from the National Cancer Institute in 2002 for Lymphoma research and a second for neuroendocrine tumors in 2015. Our SPOREs have become models for organizing our other areas of research excellence in tissue repositories, population science, epidemiology, genetics, experimental therapeutics, and free radical metabolism and imaging.

We work nationally to promote care locally.

From the White House’s Cancer Moon Shot in 2016 to a ground-breaking effort 10 years before, Holden has been at the forefront nationally to see that our country’s scientific and healing resources are focused on overcoming the burden of cancer in Iowa and around the world.

We focus your care through a MOG.

MOGs, or multidisciplinary oncology groups, began at Holden in 2008. These full teams of oncologists, surgeons, pathologists, imaging specialists, research scientists, geneticists, and therapists specialize in one type of cancer. They meet weekly to apply a roomful of expertise to each patient’s cancer case, directing the best treatment options and advancing our research understanding.

We benefit from your generosity.

A $25 million gift in 2000 from the Holden family of Williamsburg, Iowa, and recent gifts of more than $2 million from University of Iowa students participating in the annual Dance Marathon are examples of the remarkable support Holden has received from all parts of Iowa and the country. It is a privilege to invest these generous gifts in programs, facilities, services, and discoveries that advance our quest to eliminate cancer from the lives of our families and friends.