Leadership Messages — Terry R. Peets
A future rife with opportunity
Following an extensive review and application process, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently renewed City of Hope’s core grant and Comprehensive Cancer Center status for five years, carrying the institution through 2013, its centennial year.
Today, only 41 Comprehensive Cancer Centers across the nation have earned NCI designation. These centers are characterized by strong organizational capabilities, institutional commitment and transdisciplinary, cancer-focused science. According to the NCI, they also must possess experienced scientific and administrative leadership, and state-of-the-art cancer research and patient care facilities, so I am proud City of Hope again met the institute’s stringent criteria.
The NCI renewal is a meaningful indicator that we are well on our way to achieving the goals of our strategic plan. Rapid progress on the construction of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Tumor Immunology and the Michael Amini Transfusion Medicine Center also dramatically demonstrates that we are aggressively moving forward in realizing our aspiration to become the leading cancer center in Southern California and a top cancer center nationally.
Creating greater visibility of our recent achievements in both California and nationwide is vitally important for us to continue this momentum. Furthering City of Hope’s reputation enables us to keep attracting top talent to secure more important grants and other vital funding, and to continue enhancing our clinical and research excellence. You can help us in building awareness.
I encourage you to join me in sharing the news of our remarkable accomplishments with others. As City of Hope supporters, one of the most important contributions we can make is to encourage others to find out more about the institution. When they learn about City of Hope’s impact on biomedical research, I am confident they will come to share our own excitement about the institution’s future.
Terry R. Peets
Chair, City of Hope Board of Directors
Leadership Messages — Michael A. Friedman
A mission of prevention
Cancer remains complicated and unpredictable. Once thought of as a disease that just randomly strikes out of nowhere, cancer risk can clearly be reduced when people make healthy lifestyle choices.
Avoiding tobacco, exercising, being careful of sun exposure and regularly eating a low-fat diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables are all well-known paths to risk reduction.
When researchers talk about prevention through these lifestyle choices, they are actually describing ways to diminish cancer risks. It is an important distinction, because not every person who adopts healthy habits can necessarily avoid cancer. Genetics and other factors play a part in the complex evolution of cancer within the human body. But as a group, those who reduce these known risk factors are less likely to develop certain cancers than others.
As members of a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, City of Hope researchers see prevention as a crucial mission. It is not enough to find the most effective therapies for cancer — scientists must also seek to keep cancer from happening in the first place.
But just how much influence do scientists and individuals have on risk? City of Hope researchers continue to ask that complicated question. In this issue of City News, City of Hope investigators — from physicians to scientists — examine the roots of risk in just one of the many malignancies they are studying: breast cancer.
By understanding the role of environmental factors such as diet and sharing that knowledge, researchers help women take a greater part in deterring disease. At the same time, by discerning how important genetics are in the development of cancer, researchers can then hone strategies for early detection and find targets for therapy.
Science is closing in on cancer from all directions, and City of Hope will continue the pursuit with vigor. Thank you for supporting this important quest.
Michael A. Friedman, M.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
