Message from the Director

Since our founding in 2003, The GW Cancer Institute has been guided by three principle ideals: Commitment, Compassion, and Community. Through this lens, we have taken a comprehensive approach to cancer, bringing together multidisciplinary clinical, research, education, and outreach teams to tackle prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. In just a few years we’ve made great strides in offering leading-edge, technologically-advanced medicine with a warm and compassionate touch. We’ve made breakthrough advances in research, strengthened cancer education, and engaged in groundbreaking community outreach. We know that now, more than ever, there is much more work to be done. 

Over the last several years, GWCI has dramatically increased cancer prevention education in the DC community through heightening awareness about the lifesaving benefits of screening. Just one example: we provide over 1000 free prostate cancer screenings, including screening over 600 men at the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo annually. We continue to work with barbershops, community churches, and sports teams to spread the message that early screening is critical, resulting in screening thousands of people who otherwise would not have had access to preventative care.

Vital partnerships allow us to continue our work. For example, through our relationship with the American Cancer Society, we have added a full-time patient navigator to our staff, enhancing our existing navigation program. Through our NCI-funded DC City-wide Patient Navigation Program we work with strategic partners including Providence Hospital, Washington Hospital Center, Howard University Hospital, MedStar Health, Nueva Vida and Unity Health Care to enroll patients in our patient navigation study-which will teach us how to best to serve cancer patients.

Through a new $1.2 million grant from the Pfizer Foundation, we have established The Center for the Advancement of Cancer Survivorship, Navigation, and Policy. This Center will help train and implement the next generation of Survivorship and Navigation programs across the region and nation and will work with policy makers on legislation that will impact cancer health care and particularly those most in need. Other recent awards include a $500,000 Avon Foundation grant supporting breast cancer initiatives in medically underserved areas of the District, and an award from the DC Department of Health to support colorectal cancer outreach, screening and patient navigation.

We are also making powerful inroads into understanding breast, colorectal, prostate and brain cancer through our NCI-funded cancer genomics research conducted in partnership with Howard University and the J. Craig Venter Institute to explore the genomics of cancer disparities. We also have teams of researchers unraveling molecular pathways that allow tumor cells to survive, spread to other organs, resist treatment and escape the immune system.

Our mission is to coordinate and integrate all of the cancer-combating efforts of GW into a seamless and comprehensive program. I am constantly inspired by the teams that work together for this vital cause: GW faculty and student researchers, community outreach programs like the GW Mammovan, our divisions of Cancer Prevention and Control, Cancer Education and Outreach, and Cancer Survivorship, and our outstanding physicians who work daily with patients and their families. We are delighted to celebrate the generosity of Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen who helped us create the Katzen Cancer Research Center at GW. Through the continued generosity of friends and partners we will be able to continue to make strides towards conquering this insidious disease. I am grateful every day for the collective work that is done, and for the gracious support we receive.

Warmest regards,
 

Steven R. Patierno, Ph.D.
Executive Director
GW Cancer Institute