Economy forces Nevada Cancer Institute to lay off staff

For the second time in less than three years, the Nevada Cancer Institute is laying off staff.

Michael Yackira, chairman of the institute's board, announced Monday that a miserable economy has made it necessary for 30 members of the institute's support staff to be laid off in coming weeks.

In August 2008, Heather Murren, co-founder of the nonprofit organization, had announced layoff of 50 staffers.

"The economic downturn has hurt our fundraising capability," Yackira said. "Every not-for-profit is having the same difficulty."

Documents showing the institute's current financial situation were unavailable Monday.

When Murren announced layoffs in 2008, the group had generated a little more than $50 million in philanthropic gifts, grants and government support in 2007, down from $66 million in 2006.

The organization, which now employs 350, has traditionally benefited from a solid relationship with the Nevada Legislature, which in 2003 made it the state's official cancer institute and appropriated more than $20 million to the institution by 2009.

"Nevada Cancer Institute opened with an ambitious building and growth plan in a vastly different economic environment than we see today," Yackira said.

Institute officials said the layoffs would come from departments that include finance, communications and human resources.

"You hate for this to happen to anybody at this time," Yackira said, "but we need to make sure we can keep with our mission of delivering care and doing research."

Yackira said he hopes the economy would not keep Dr. John C. Ruckdeschel, director and CEO of the institute, from hiring more doctors and researchers needed to be a federally designated comprehensive cancer center. Only 40 centers currently have the designation that Murren has coveted since the institute's opening.

It is still uncertain, Yackira said, whether the institute will construct a cancer hospital or partner with a hospital in the Las Vegas Valley where institute doctors would do surgery.

"We're studying those things," he said.

The institute runs a clinic at University Medical Center.

Since opening in 2005, the institute has served more than 15,000 patients at its Summerlin campus and has provided mobile mammography and other screenings and educational programs across the state.

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.