[1] Founded in 1971, the center is part of the Duke University School of Medicine and Duke University Health System located in Durham, North Carolina, United States.

[6] In November 2010, Victor Dzau, MD, chancellor of health affairs for Duke University, formally unveiled the Duke Cancer Institute, during the topping out ceremony for the new building.

[7] The DCI is a single entity—the first of its kind at Duke—that integrates and aligns patient care and basic and clinical research with the goals of improving patient outcomes, decreasing the burden of cancer and accelerating scientific progress.

[9] Eun-Sil Shelley Hwang became the institute's first female Chief of Breast Surgery.

[11] In June 2018, the institute published a study in The New England Journal of Medicine showing how a genetically modified poliovirus therapy improved long-term survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma.