SEATTLE, March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center today announced that it has joined the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) in helping to address the needs of the growing number of cancer survivors in the United States through the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network. The LAF has pledged $1.7 million for the Hutchinson Center’s progressive, comprehensive programs that help people affected by cancer to live life on their own terms.
“We expect that this generous grant from the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the collaboration with other Network members will greatly enhance our ability to serve patients throughout the Northwest -- survivors of pediatric and adult cancer who have been treated with transplantation or conventional therapy,” said Debra Friedman, M.D., who will serve as director of the Hutchinson Center’s LIVESTRONG programs. “We are very excited about the possibilities this grant represents, as well as the huge potential benefits to the increasing numbers of cancer survivors.”
The LAF grant enables the Hutchinson Center to integrate existing survivorship programs and develop new programs to better serve survivors of pediatric and adult malignancies from a large geographic area. Currently, the Hutchinson Center is the sole National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center to serve Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.
The four Hutchinson Center survivorship initiatives to be united under the grant include a long-term follow-up program for marrow and stem-cell transplant patients; the After Cancer Care Ends Survivorship Starts program for childhood-cancer survivors, directed by Friedman; a prostate-cancer clinical-research program and the Women’s Wellness Center for breast- and ovarian-cancer survivors. In addition, under Friedman’s directorship, a new program is being developed for general medical-oncology survivors treated with conventional therapy. The programs are to be housed in the outpatient clinic of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, or SCCA, located on the Hutchinson Center campus. The SCCA is a collaboration of three world-renowned institutions: the Hutchinson Center, the University of Washington, and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center.
To expand the reach of survivorship programs to underserved communities, affiliate locations will be established at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital/Providence Cancer Center in Spokane, and Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. Through these affiliates, the Hutchinson Center will provide cancer-survivor care and research to inner-city, non-English speaking, and Alaska Native and Native American populations. The Hutchinson Center will also develop test models such as a dedicated telephone “help line,” an enhanced, easy-to-navigate Web site, best-practice guidelines, educational materials and additional resources for survivors and health-care professionals.
The LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network is an invitation-only collaborative partnership among the LAF, NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and their community affiliates. Working together, members of the Network will address topics such as critical survivorship research, new interventions and progress in insurance reimbursement to provide the most-effective survivorship care.
Today, more than 10 million Americans are living with cancer. As the number of people surviving cancer continues to rise and as their challenges grow in magnitude and complexity, an increasing need exists for new models of survivorship care and research.
“Extended cancer survival is a relatively new phenomenon, so the current pace of research and development of effective models of care lags behind the need,” said Caroline Huffman, LAF survivorship program manager. “To help accelerate the pace of progress in addressing the needs of the growing survivor community, the LAF established the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Centers of Excellence Network to serve as comprehensive, one-stop sources of information, care and services for cancer survivors, family members and service providers.”
Other network members include UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Colorado Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, our interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists and humanitarians work together to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Our researchers, including three Nobel laureates, bring a relentless pursuit and passion for health, knowledge and hope to their work and to the world. For more information, please visit www.fhcrc.org.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) inspires and empowers people affected by cancer. We help people with cancer focus on living; we believe that unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. From the moment of diagnosis, the LAF provides the practical information and tools people with cancer need to live life on their own terms. The LAF serves its mission through advocacy, public health and research. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, the LAF is located in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit livestrong.org.
CONTACTS Christi Ball Loso (Hutchinson Center) 206-667-5215 closo@fhcrc.org Stephanie H. Elsea, APR (Lance Armstrong Foundation) 512-236-8820 x150 stephanie.elsea@laf.org
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
CONTACT: Christi Ball Loso of Hutchinson Center, +1-206-667-5215, orcloso@fhcrc.org; or Stephanie H. Elsea, APR, Lance Armstrong Foundation,+1-512-236-8820, ext. 150, or stephanie.elsea@laf.org
