NCCN Member Institution Spotlight

$16 Million in Federal Stimulus Funding Establishes Seattle as a Hub of Comparative-Effectiveness Research in Cancer
SEATTLE (October 5, 2009) – Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington schools of Public Health and Pharmacy have been selected to lead four projects backed by approximately $16 million in federal stimulus funding for comparative-effectiveness research in cancer.

‘This is me now’: A Breast Cancer Patient’s Story About Healing and Recovery
When 28-year-old Aleka Schmidt learned that a mastectomy was the only viable treatment for her Stage III breast cancer, she commissioned a pre-surgery portrait by photographer Sandie Ecker, “to preserve how I looked before the mastectomy.” The black-and-white image captures the collision of emotions in a young wife and mother, who sits with arms folded across her breasts, at once vulnerable and courageous, afraid and hopeful, steeling herself against the coming transformation with confidence in her husband’s love.

“Vicious Circle” Offers New Acute Leukemia Treatment Target
Researchers have identified a self-feeding “vicious circle” of molecules that keeps acute leukemia cells alive and growing and that drives the disease forward.

A New Kind of Fingerprinting
When Linnea Duff, an active 45-year old mother of three, began experiencing shortness of breath, she was diagnosed with adult-onset asthma. But after an unresolved bout of pneumonia, her doctors discovered something else: stage-IB lung cancer.

Addressing Childhood Cancer
A conversation with Lisa Diller, MD, Clinical Director of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Adolescent Drinking Adds to Risk of Breast Disease, Breast Cancer
St. Louis (April 12, 2010) - Girls and young women who drink alcohol increase their risk of benign (noncancerous) breast disease, says a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University. Benign breast disease increases the risk for developing breast cancer.

Aggressive Infection Control Program Protects Cancer Patients From Acquiring Clinic-Based H1N1 Influenza
SEATTLE (December 16, 2009) – Despite a 100-fold increase in H1N1 influenza cases in the Seattle area during spring 2009, an aggressive infection control program to protect immunocompromised cancer patients and thorough screening measures resulted in no corresponding increase in H1N1 cases among the total patient population at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, according to a new study by researchers and physicians at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the SCCA.

Asians may wield survival advantage in gastric cancer
Dr. Joseph Kim, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, and fellow researchers recently conducted the largest study on racial disparities in cancer of the stomach and found that Asian-Americans show significantly higher survival for gastric cancer than patients from other ethnic or racial groups.

At Roswell Park Cancer Institute, a new definition of “healing arts”
Studies have shown that cancer patients who participate in art activities in hospital settings report feeling less bored, sad and anxious. That’s what it’s all about, according to Margarita Coyne, RN, BSN, Director of Patient Services, who helped bring the artists to Roswell Park through the Arts in Healthcare initiative of the University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts. Both Roswell Park and Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo are partners in the initiative.

Beating the Odds of Pancreatic Cancer
Denny LaVercombe is beating the odds. When the Helena resident was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, doctors gave him only six months to live—a year at the most. That was four years ago. Thanks to the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Mr. LaVercombe is a member of a rare group—only 5 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer survive five years after diagnosis.