Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

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The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, located in Seattle, Washington was established in 1975 and is one of the world’s leading cancer-research institutes. Its interdisciplinary teams of scientists conduct research in the laboratory, at patient bedside, and in communities throughout the world to advance the prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

The Center's mission is the elimination of cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death. ^[1]

Center researchers pioneered bone-marrow transplantation for leukemia and other blood diseases. This research has cured thousands of patients worldwide and has boosted survival rates for certain forms of leukemia from zero to as high as 85 percent. ^[2]

The Center grew out of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, founded in 1956 by Dr. William Hutchinson. The Foundation was dedicated to the study of heart surgery, cancer, and diseases of the endocrine system. In 1964, Dr. Hutchinson's brother Fred Hutchinson, who had been a baseball player for the Seattle Rainiers and Detroit Tigers and later managed the Rainiers, the Tigers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds, died of lung cancer. The next year, Dr. Hutchinson established the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as a division of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation. The Center split off from its parent foundation in 1972, and the physical center was opened in 1975. ^[3]

Today, the Center is solely a nonprofit, independent research institution and does not treat patients on site. Some of the Center's scientists, however, are also medical doctors who treat patients through the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a patient-care facility run in collaboration with the University of Washington and Seattle Children's.

Contents 1 Nobel Prize Recipients 2 Research Initiatives 3 Clinical ethics controversy 4 Documentary 5 Funding 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Nobel Prize Recipients

The Hutchinson Center is home to three recipients of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

• Linda Buck, Ph.D., received the award in 2004 for solving many details of the olfactory system – the complex network that governs our sense of smell.^[4]
• Lee Hartwell, Ph.D., the Center’s president and director, received the honor in 2001 for his discoveries regarding the mechanisms that control cell division;^[5] and
• E. Donnall Thomas, M.D., received the award in 1990 for his pioneering work in bone-marrow transplantation.^[6]

[edit] Research Initiatives

The Hutchinson Center’s ongoing commitment to conducting research of the highest standards to improve the quality of life for people around the world is exemplified by its eight major research initiatives, which harness the institution’s strengths to achieve the greatest health benefits for humanity. These initiatives focus on the following areas: ^[7]

Early detection

For many cancers, when the disease is detected at an early or pre-cancer stage, nine out of 10 patients will survive. The Center leads major national and international research projects devoted to the discovery of powerful new protein-based blood tests to diagnose cancer at its earliest, most curable stages.

Immunotherapy

Hutchinson Center researchers lead a revolutionary new field called immunotherapy, which yields effective cancer treatments with far fewer side effects than conventional therapy. Immunotherapy harnesses the power of the immune system to fight cancer, much as it naturally eliminates everyday infections like the common cold.

International research

The Center’s commitment to improving the quality of life for those with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases knows no borders. The Center has launched a global-health initiative to speed the development and delivery of preventive measures for the world's most urgent public-health problems.

Tumor research

The tumor-research initiative seeks to find new ways to create better therapies for treating tumors once they’re found. This is such an important goal that the Center has united with a team of oncologists, surgeons and other clinical specialists at UW Medicine [1] and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center [2], the Hutchinson Center's partners in the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, or SCCA [3]. Through this partnership the best new cancer treatments are made rapidly available to patients.

Fundamental research

By studying the basic properties of healthy cells and comparing them to abnormal cells, Hutchinson Center scientists identify the genes and proteins that contribute to disease and use this knowledge to benefit human health.

Childhood cancer

The Center’s track record of improving the odds of many pediatric patients has led to the development and evaluation of new and improved treatments for childhood brain tumors, leukemia, sarcoma and other cancers.

Leukemia/lymphoma and blood-related diseases

The Hutchinson Center is internationally known for pioneering bone-marrow transplantation for leukemia, lymphoma and other blood disorders. Center scientists continue to advance and refine this area of life-saving research. An example is the “mini-transplant,” a modified transplant procedure that requires no hospitalization, has few side effects and shows promise for kidney and other solid-tumor cancers.

Prevention research

The Hutchinson Center houses the world’s oldest and largest cancer-prevention research program, which is dedicated to uncovering the genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that influence a person’s likelihood of getting cancer. This knowledge is then used to test ways to reduce that risk.

[edit] Clinical ethics controversy

In 2001, the Seattle Times published a controversial series of articles alleging that Hutchinson Center investigators (including the Center's co-founder Dr. E. Donnall Thomas) were conducting unethical clinical studies on cancer patients. The paper alleged that in two cancer studies conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s, patients were not informed about all the risks of the study, nor about the study doctors' financial interest in study outcome. The paper also alleged that this financial interest may have contributed to the doctors' failure to halt the studies despite evidence that patients were dying sooner and more frequently than expected.^[8]

The Center's leadership strongly contested the accuracy of the Seattle Times articles, maintaining that the researchers involved did not stand to gain financially and that patients were fully briefed. Still, the Center formed a panel of independent experts to review its existing research practices, leading to adoption of "one of the nation's toughest conflict-of-interest rules." ^[9]

The Times series prompted families of several patients to sue the Center. The Center fought those allegations in court and largely prevailed. All claims of fraud and conflict of interest were dismissed by the judge prior to trial. The jury found that all of the patients were properly advised of the risks of the treatments they received and that the Center was not negligent in the deaths of four patients. The jury awarded approximately $1 million to the family of a fifth patient whose bone marrow was damaged during laboratory processing. These events unfolded at a time of national debate over how medical research is conducted and regulated, and other institutions have also opted to strengthen their research policies as a result.

[edit] Documentary

In 2004, the Taiwanese Buddhist Compassion Tzu Chi Foundation produced the 2004 Emmy Award-nominated documentary "Great Love as a Running Water," which focused on bone marrow transplantation. It featured the Hutchinson Center's Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, the 1990 Nobel laureate; Dr. John Hansen, head of the Human Immunogenetics Program; and several other medical researchers.

[edit] Funding

The Hutchinson Center is among the top National Cancer Institute-funded academic and research institutes and is ranked first in National Institutes of Health funding among all U.S. independent research institutions.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Web site
• Hutchinson Center research initiatives
• Hutchinson Center's End Colon Cancer Now campaign

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