It's been about a year and a half now since Utah Industrialist Jon Huntsman, announced a 150-million dollar investment in cancer research. Just where does that investment stand, now?

The answer, tonight in a special report by Dick Nourse on Jon Huntsman's effort, to "Kick Cancer."

Jon M. Huntsman: ((THERE ARE NO LIMITS AS TO WHAT WE WILL DO TO HELP FIND A CURE FOR CANCER.))

Jon Huntsman is a consummate businessman: rich, powerful, influential. But, Jon Huntsman is also a man with a more personal vision. He wants to find a cure for cancer--it's a committment that runs deep in his soul.

Jon M. Huntsman: ((ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, DICK, WE'VE BEEN FORTUNATE IN OUR BUSINESSES TO DEVELOP A CERTAIN EQUITY OR NET WORTH POSITION. AND IF EVERY SINGLE PENNY OF THAT GOES TO FINDING A CURE FOR CANCER -- HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS -- SO BE IT.))

To wage his battle, Huntsman is creating the Huntsman Cancer Institute--currently under construction on the campus of the University of Utah.

You can see the institute from Huntsman's corporate office, where I spoke with him about his personal and passionate committment to cancer research.

((WE HAVE TO UTILIZE WHAT WE'VE BEEN GIVEN TO MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR OTHERS, AND IT'S SUCH AN INHERENT FEELING OF EXCITEMENT TO DO THAT, IT'S A FAR GREATER DRIVING FORCE THAN IF WE DID SOMETHING FOR OURSELVES.))

The 52-million-dollar building won't be finished for more than a year, but Huntsman has already begun assembling a vast array of medical and research specialists. 250 of the world's best and brightest medical minds are already in place in temporary facilities.

Their research focuses on five major areas: cancers of the brain, colon, prostate, and breast and cancers that affect children. The institute already offers screenings for those at high-risk for breast and colon cancers, and a high-risk prostate cancer clinic will open soon.

On the surface it's a well-planned, methodical approach; but, just under the surface there is also a sense of urgency--urgency you can almost touch.

((DICK, YOU AND I REPRESENT FOUR DIFFERENT CANCERS. YOU'VE HAD IT TWICE, I'VE HAD IT TWICE. EDITONE IN THREE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WILL END UP WITH CANCER AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER IN THEIR LIFE.))

((THERE ARE OVER 100 DIFFERENT KINDS OF CANCERS. SO WHEN SOMEBODY SUGGESTS "LET'S FIND A CURE FOR CANCER," WHAT THEY'RE SUGGESTING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT MEDICAL CHALLENGE IN THE HISTORY PROBABLY OF THE WORLD.))

Huntsman chose to build his institute here, in part, because of access to genealogical records kept by the LDS Church--records his researchers hope will help trace genetic links to cancer, and lead them to future cures.

((I REALLY FEEL THAT IN THE NEXT FIVE TO TEN YEARS, WE'LL SEE MORE PROGRESS IN THE ELIMINATION OF CANCER OR THE REDUCTION IN THE RATES OF CANCER THAN WE HAVE SEEN IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF TIME BEFORE NOW.))

The Huntsman Cancer Institute should be finished, sometime in the second quarter of next year.