Spotlight on National Cancer Research Month

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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

May is National Cancer Research Month, as declared by the U.S. Congress last year in recognition of the American Association for Cancer Research's centennial. To mark the occasion, we at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have created a timeline describing just a few of the diverse milestones reached by our investigators over the years.

1972

Dr. E. Donnall Thomas

When the Hutchinson Center became an independent research institution in 1972, a primary research focus was Dr. E. Donnall Thomas' pioneering work in bone-marrow transplantation. Although considered radical at the time, this procedure now ranks among the greatest success stories in cancer treatment, boosting worldwide survival rates for some blood cancers from nearly zero to upwards of 85 percent. Thomas' work, which began decades before the Center's founding, earned him the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Center physicians, now in partnership with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, have gone on to perform more bone-marrow transplants than anywhere else. Today, our researchers continue to break new ground in the transplantation field, with accomplishments that include development of lower-intensity transplants, improvements in transplantation using umbilical-cord blood cells, and important new insights into stem-cell transplantation for a variety of cancers.

1983

The Center houses the nation's oldest and largest program devoted to understanding the causes of cancer and how to prevent it. With the founding of the Cancer Prevention Research Program in 1983, our researchers have gone on to delve into the links between cancers and numerous possible triggers, ranging from genetic and biological factors to diet, exercise and other lifestyle choices. Examples of significant findings over the years include:

• Regular, moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise significantly reduces a risk factor associated with colon cancer in men.
• Eating three daily servings of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage may lower a man's risk of prostate cancer by nearly half.
• The overall health risks of long-term use of combined hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women, including elevated risk of invasive breast cancer and failure to prevent heart disease, outweigh the benefits, according to the Women's Health Initiative, the largest study of women's health ever conducted.

1986

Computer rendering of cyclosporine molecule GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Work by our clinical researchers in 1986 resulted in today's "gold standard" treatment for graft-vs.-host disease—a complication that occurs in some patients who have received transplants using donor cells. In GVHD patients, the body recognizes these transplanted cells as "foreign" and mounts an attack against them, causing a range of symptoms and potentially serious damage to body organs. Building upon years of testing two drugs separately, our researchers found that a combination of two drugs—methotrexate and cyclosporine—provides effective GVHD protection.

1992

Monoclonal antibodies being produced in a lab Photo Credit: National Cancer Institute

Our investigators in 1992 became the first to show that laboratory-produced molecules known as monoclonal antibodies can be used to target high doses of radiation to leukemia- and lymphoma-related tumors. This critical breakthrough has provided for a direct attack on tumors, thus sparing healthy cells and minimizing harmful side effects. Discoveries by Center researchers were instrumental in the development of antibody-based treatments that have gone on to become federally approved, widely used anticancer drugs: Mylotarg® for leukemia, Rituxan™ for non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, and Bexxar™ for follicular lymphomas.

1998

Dr. Rainer Storb

The rigors of traditional bone-marrow or stem-cell transplants can pose problems for older blood-cancer patients or younger patients with medical troubles. In hopes of extending the potential benefits of this treatment to a broader population, our researchers, led by Dr. Rainer Storb, began clinical trials in 1998 to test a lower-intensity approach. Unlike conventional transplants, this treatment—called the non-myeloablative stem-cell transplant or "mini" transplant—does not wipe out the patient's bone marrow and involves minimal doses of radiation, thereby reducing toxic side effects. By 2001 our researchers had concluded that this radically different transplantation method is, in fact, a viable treatment option for certain patients.

2003

Yeast Cells

For us humans, growing older is the greatest cancer risk factor. A landmark 2003 study by the Center's Dr. Daniel Gottschling and colleagues may help to explain why. Using yeast as a model organism, our researchers discovered that when yeast cells hit the equivalent of late-middle age, they experience a surge in genetic instability. These findings suggested this simple, single-celled organism may be an ideal model for understanding the complexities of age-related cancer development in humans. It wasn't the first time yeast came into the spotlight: The lowly microbe gained new respect in 2001 when the Center's president and director, Dr. Lee Hartwell received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for using brewer's yeast to uncover the genetic mechanisms of cell division.

2005

Dr. Lee Hartwell

One of the Center's major research endeavors focuses on discovering biomarkers, or unique proteins in the blood that may warn of cancer's presence at its earliest stages, when survival rates are highest. In hopes of accelerating biomarker research worldwide, Center President Dr. Lee Hartwell in 2005 launched the International Cancer Biomarker Consortium, a large-scale collaboration of research teams devoted to particular cancer types. Our scientists have already identified proteins with the potential to serve various functions, including predicting survival from breast cancer, improving diagnosis of ovarian cancer, indicating early development of pancreatic cancer, and signaling susceptibility to esophageal cancer. More recently, our researchers have discovered a potentially new class of early-detection biomarkers called microRNAs, which are released by cancer cells and circulate in the blood. We're also leading work on technologies designed to aid the painstaking process of analyzing various proteins.

2007

Scorpion Photo Credit: Flickr user Chadica

What do scorpions and brain tumors have in common? A team of researchers at the Hutchinson Center and Seattle Children's found in a 2007 study that a scorpion-derived substance can be used to illuminate cancer cells in brain tissue, giving surgeons a better chance of removing the harmful tumors without injuring surrounding healthy tissue. The Center's Dr. James Olson developed the tumor "paint"—actually a fluorescent molecular beacon known as Chlorotoxin:Cy5.5—in his lab, and it could be available soon for use in operating rooms. This innovation is important because surgery is a primary cancer therapy, yet, despite other advances in surgical tools, distinguishing where tumors end and healthy tissue begins has remained a challenge.

2008

Dr. Cassian Yee

Our researchers have earned worldwide renown for developing successful treatments that harness the immune system to fight cancer, much as it naturally eliminates everyday infections like the common cold. This revolutionary field, called immunotherapy, has been found to yield effective cancer therapies with far fewer side effects than conventional drugs, radiation or surgery. In the early 1990s our researchers became the first to show that rare disease-fighting cells, known as T cells, can be isolated, multiplied in large quantities, and infused back into patients to treat viral diseases. A major breakthrough occurred in 2008 when the Center's Dr. Cassian Yee reported the first known successful use of a melanoma patient's own cloned T cells as the sole therapy to put his advanced solid-tumor cancer into long-term remission.

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2009

Photo Credit: Flickr user emurray

And that brings us to the present. Studies that have grabbed headlines so far this year include a variety of findings related to lifestyle choices and cancer risk, including:

• Multivitamins don't appear to influence cancer risk in postmenopausal women.
• Marijuana use may increase a man's risk of testicular cancer.
• Red and white wine are equal offenders when it comes to elevating a woman's breast-cancer risk.

Across numerous disciplines, the Center's faculty and staff continue to work toward our guiding mission: eliminating cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death.