Swedish takes the Cancer Moonshot challenge

July 29, 2016 Swedish Blogger

Cancer is personal. Almost all of us and millions of people around the world have been touched by it, personally, or through a family member or friend. Now the nation is embarking on the Cancer Moonshot, a concerted mission to find a cure for a disease that kills nearly 600,000 Americans every year. The goal: to make a decade’s worth of advances against cancer in five years.

Vice President Biden leads historic summit

DrBrown_withLeeHood
With Dr. Hood (right).
DrBrown_withGaryGilliland
With Dr. Gilliland (right).
DrBrown_WithJudithSalerno
With Dr. Salerno (left).

In June, Vice President Joe Biden joined more than 400 researchers, cancer specialists and data and technology experts in Washington, D.C., for the Cancer Moonshot summit. It was the first time a group this expansive and diverse has met under a government charge to accelerate the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and curing of cancer.

I attended the summit along with other cancer leaders from Seattle, including Lee Hood, M.D., from the Institute for Systems Biology; Gary Gilliland, M.D., Ph.D., from Fred Hutch; and Judith Salerno, M.D., M.S., from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The promise of personalized medicine

Swedish Cancer Institute and Providence Health & Services are responding to the Moonshot challenge by helping build a medical database that we will use to customize cancer treatment for each patient.

We have already begun to do this at SCI and Providence by studying our patients’ tumors using targeted sequencing to search for mutations within DNA. Our specialists personalize cancer care by using mutation profiles to prioritize standard therapies, and to help match patients for treatment in appropriate clinical trials.

Swedish joins Intermountain Health and Stanford in cancer data network

Now, SCI and Providence Health & Services are going a step further. We have formed the Oncology Precision Network (OPeN) with Intermountain Healthcare and the Stanford Cancer Institute.

How we can use data to fight cancer

This network will analyze data across 11 states, 79 hospitals and 800 clinics to help us provide even more precise care based on the biological features of both the patient and his or her unique cancer.

Just as crucial, this data will help us match patients to clinical trials involving new therapies most likely to fight their type of cancer. SCI is one of the largest clinical-trial sites in the West, so we are poised to help many patients in this area.

Aiming for more breakthroughs

Trials lead to some of the most significant advances in cancer treatment. They also can be a lifeline for patients who have already tried conventional therapy or have a type of cancer with limited treatment options.

With the creation of the Oncology Precision Network, SCI and Providence hope to make significant contributions to the Cancer Moonshot. At SCI, we see it as an opportunity to build on the extraordinary care we offer our patients.

You can learn more about personalized medicine at SCI here. To read about all of our services, visit the SCI homepage.

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