Today is an exciting day in the fight against cancer. For the past 20 years, UW Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s partnered through the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) to produce cutting-edge cancer research and compassionate care for patients with cancer. Today, in order to accelerate cancer research, prevention and treatment on behalf of patients throughout our region and beyond, we are announcing a new way of working together.
I’m proud to share the formation of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center — a single, independent, nonprofit organization focused on adult cancer research and care that is a clinically integrated part of UW Medicine and UW Medicine’s cancer program. This evolution in the structure of these organizations will have minimal immediate impact on patients or their families; the superior care they have come to expect will continue uninterrupted. Over the long term, this updated structure will enable Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and UW Medicine to accelerate research and improve patients’ care experiences and increase integration across their care teams.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is fundamentally about reshaping the future of cancer research and care in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. As a unified organization, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center will accelerate the development, evaluation and use of new cancer discoveries and treatments and will offer patients greater access to clinical trials, bringing research and clinical care closer together. It will also bring a very important focus on healthcare equity.
A cancer diagnosis can be devastating, but thanks to the research at the University of Washington and elsewhere, in our own lifetimes we have already witnessed extraordinary advances that have changed what a cancer diagnosis means. We have every reason to believe that more and bigger breakthroughs lie ahead. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center possible. I can’t wait to see what comes next!