UNC Lineberger is the only public NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in the state of North Carolina.

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center was established in 1975 with Joseph S. Pagano, Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, as its founding director.

[2] The cancer center was previously led by Norman Sharpless, who was appointed to the role in 2014.

Sharpless, an expert in molecular therapeutics, attended the University of North Carolina as both an undergraduate, receiving the Morehead-Cain Scholarship, and as a medical student.

H. Shelton Earp III, who served as director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center prior to Sharpless, agreed to serve as interim director after Sharpless left for the NCI.