Accomplishments

Medical-Research Advances

Hutchinson Center researchers have made many of the world's most important medical-research advances during the last three decades. Here are some of our key discoveries:

Transplantation

• Bone-marrow transplantation, which has provided a cure to thousands of leukemia patients worldwide and boosted survival rates from nearly zero to as high as 80 percent.
• Mini-transplantation, a less toxic form of stem-cell transplantation that offers lifesaving treatment to older people and those unable to tolerate the rigors of high-dose treatment regimens.
• Application of stem-cell transplantation to a variety of cancers and genetic and immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, scleroderma and lymphoma.
• A method for expanding the number of stem cells in a unit of cord blood in order to make these life-saving transplants available to adults whose only viable source of donor cells is umbilical cords. The first patient received a transplant using this method in 2007.

Targeted Cell Treatments

• The monoclonal antibody that led to Mylotarg: the first FDA-approved, antibody-targeted chemotherapy. The drug is a less toxic and more effective form of cancer treatment than standard chemotherapy.
• A technique, developed in collaboration with University of Washington, to deliver radiation directly to cancer cells using radiolabeled antibodies, sparing healthy tissue.
• A new treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma based on antibody-targeted therapy, an approach now used to treat thousands of people annually.
• The first successful use of a human patient's cloned infection-fighting T cells as the sole therapy to put an advanced solid-tumor cancer, melanoma, into long-term remission.

Improved Detection

• Identification of a panel of proteins linked to early development of pancreatic cancer—a breakthrough that brings scientists a significant step closer to developing a blood test to detect the disease early, when cure rates are highest.
• Discovery of a cluster of four known cancer biomarkers, or genetic abnormalities, in people with Barrett's esophagus, which significantly increases their risk of developing esophageal cancer.
• A method of monitoring cancer risk and onset in patients with the precancerous condition Barrett's esophagus. The technique has boosted survival rates for esophageal cancer from 5 percent to more than 80 percent.
• Discovery, with partners at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute, of a protein marker in the blood that may allow for more accurate early detection of ovarian cancer.
• Development of a diagnostic test that indicates whether a woman with breast cancer would benefit from aggressive chemotherapy. This discovery saves patients from arduous treatments that would not help them.
• Development of a new diagnostic test for lupus—the first screening breakthrough for the disease in 50 years.
• Validation of a potential "HIV-test" equivalent for the early detection of lung cancer. The test—which relies on immune-system signals, much like an HIV test—can detect the presence of lung cancer a year prior to diagnosis, long before symptoms appear.
• The discovery that microRNAs—molecular workhorses that regulate gene expression—are released by cancer cells and circulate in the blood, which gives them the potential to become a new class of biomarkers to detect cancer at its earliest stages.
• The finding that screening for symptoms such as abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, or feeling full quickly, in tandem with the standard CA125 blood test, improves the early detection of ovarian cancer by 20 percent.

New technologies

• Use of minute amounts of hydrogen sulfide to induce a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice and other model organisms—a technique that one day may be used to help buy time for critically ill trauma patients on organ-transplant lists and in operating rooms, emergency rooms and battlefields.
• Development of a technique for inserting changes into genes, which led to the first successful applications of gene therapy in humans.

Prevention Studies

• A finding that getting regular, moderate-intensity exercise may be critically important for men and women who want to reduce their risk of cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases. The reason: Exercise effectively reduces weight, overall body fat and intra-abdominal fat, a hidden risk factor for many chronic illnesses.
• A finding that regular, moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise significantly reduces a risk factor associated with the formation of colon polyps and colon cancer in men.
• A finding that people with the most aggressive form of Barrett's esophagus, a precancerous condition that can lead to esophageal cancer, may benefit the most from preventive therapy with aspirin, ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs.
• The discovery, through our leading role in the groundbreaking Women's Health Initiative study, that hormone-replacement therapy can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart disease.
• Discovery of a gene that plays a role in prostate-cancer susceptibility in young and middle-aged men.
• Study results that indicate three daily servings of vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage may lower a man's risk of prostate cancer by nearly half.
• Findings that at least five glasses of water a day may lower a woman's risk of colorectal cancer by more than 50 percent.
• Research showing that regular aerobic activity 3 to 4 hours a week may lower a woman's risk of breast cancer by up to 40 percent.
• Study findings that vitamin A supplements do not prevent lung cancer in high-risk populations.

Worldwide Impact

The Hutchinson Center's researchers conduct globe-spanning studies  and lead numerous international scientific endeavors. Examples of these efforts include:

• Training physicians from many countries in bone-marrow and stem-cell transplantation, thereby making these lifesaving therapies available to tens of thousands of patients each year.
• Treating patients from all over the world. More than 13,000 bone-marrow and stem-cell transplants have been performed at the Hutchinson Center and its treatment partner, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
• Recruiting more than 1 million people worldwide to participate in public-health studies led by our researchers. The Center's Cancer Prevention Program is a model for other institutions around the globe.
• Serving as the coordinating site for many national and international research studies, such as the Women's Health Initiative, the most far-reaching study ever devoted to women's health; and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, a global effort to develop and test successful HIV vaccines.
• Helping to found the Breast Health Global Initiative in 2002. This international alliance—composed of leading world health organizations, associations, government agencies, opinion leaders and experts—works to develop, implement and study evidence-based, economically feasible, and culturally appropriate guidelines for medium- and low-level resource regions to improve breast-health outcomes for medically underserved women.
• Taking part in a study that found that a single dose of an inexpensive drug can significantly reduce transmission of HIV from Ugandan mothers to their infants.
• Signing a formal memorandum of understanding with the Uganda Cancer Institute, which is part of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, to engage in collaborative scientific research for the purpose of supporting the development of a strong biomedical and biotechnological infrastructure in the African nation. This 2008 agreement built upon work begun with the UCI in 2004 to train oncologists, to conduct research into prevalent viruses that cause cancer, and to build treatment capacity.

	Research Initiatives
	Faculty Profiles
	Disease Research
	Nobel Laureates
	Accomplishments
	2008 Highlights