Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute

01 / The story of this place

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The roots of the Karmanos Cancer Institute go back to 1943, when Detroit doctors founded a small cancer research institute that later grew into the Michigan Cancer Foundation. In 1994, that foundation joined forces with Wayne State University's cancer program and the Detroit Medical Center's clinical cancer services to form a single comprehensive cancer center in Midtown Detroit. A year later it was renamed the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, honoring the first wife of Compuware founder Peter Karmanos Jr., who had died of breast cancer in 1989; Karmanos became one of the institute's biggest donors in her memory. The center on John R Street became a federally designated comprehensive cancer center, one of a small number nationwide, treating patients and running clinical trials from the same Midtown campus. Since 2014 it has operated as part of McLaren Health Care, but it still carries Barbara Ann Karmanos's name on the building.

1. Traces back to a 1943 Detroit cancer research institute
2. Formed as a combined cancer center in 1994, renamed for Barbara Ann Karmanos in 1995
3. Named for Peter Karmanos Jr.'s first wife, who died of breast cancer in 1989
4. A federally designated comprehensive cancer center in Midtown Detroit