Message from the Director

In 1971, President Nixon declared that our nation was “at war” with cancer. More than 30 years later, the fight against this seemingly tireless enemy continues.   Now, at the turn of the 21th century, there is a growing sense of hope as more and more strategic advances are made in the fight against cancer.

Since the passage of the National Cancer Act in the early 1970s, huge strides have been made in both research and patient care. Our understanding of this disease at the cellular and molecular level is expanding at a dizzying pace, and these discoveries are finding their way to patients’ bedsides in an unprecedented manner. Cancers once considered near death sentences are one by one yielding themselves to advancements in therapy. Crucial information gleaned from the sequencing of the human genome, together with the development of molecularly targeted therapeutics, has begun to transform even the way this disease is viewed: rather than a condemning stigma, many cancers are gradually becoming understood as a chronic but manageable disease. As the Director of the National Cancer Institute has put it, “We’re moving from a paradigm that might be called ‘find it and kill it’ to a new paradigm of ‘target and control it’”.¹

Despite the progress, certain cancers still disproportionately affect minority citizens and specific vulnerable populations. For example, the mortality rates of African Americans with lung, breast, prostate and colon cancers defy national averages—particularly here in the District of Columbia, which has the highest Cancer death rate in the nation. Men in the District are dying at a rate 30 percent higher than the national average, and women at a rate 19 percent higher.

Here at the GWCI, in the heart of our nation’s capital, we are especially concerned about this. So, we are stepping forward and taking a leadership role to address this serious issue that addresses our community, and our nation.

GWCI is committed to bringing our multi-disciplinary resources to bear on this serious problem through advancing research, strengthening education, enhancing the quality of patient care, and engaging in outreach to our local and national community.

At GWCI, our goal is to translate new discoveries and important information as quickly as possible to our patients, our community, and the future healthcare providers we train.

Steven R. Patierno, Ph.D.
Executive Director, The George Washington University Cancer Institute

1 Washington Post, 1/29/03