In 1991, The Northwestern University Cancer Center was dedicated through an endowment gift from Ann and Robert H. Lurie. The Center, first established in 1974, adopted the full name in 1997 when the Cancer Center was awarded the National Cancer Institute’s highly competitive “comprehensive” designation.

Lurie was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in 1987. Without treatment, Dr. Steve Rosen speculated that cancer would take his life within six months.  Laurie died on June 20, 1990, two years and six months after his initial diagnosis. Dr. Rosen requested the center bear Laurie’s name.