06/25/15 Portland, Ore.
$1 billion will create first large-scale program to overhaul early detection of lethal cancers
Fast-track recruitment of 250-300 scientists set to launch
Oregon Health & Science University today announced it met Nike
co-founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny’s $1 billion challenge by
raising $500 million in less than two years to earn the Knights’
matching gift and set a fundraising record.
The $1 billion will support the first large-scale program dedicated
to early detection of lethal cancers — one of the biggest unmet needs in
cancer care today.
“While cancer treatment has evolved to become more precise and less
toxic, the tests and tools used for cancer detection have not changed in
decades. Without better, earlier detection, and a full understanding of
cancer’s origins in the body, the promise of precision cancer medicine
cannot be realized,” said
Brian Druker, M.D., director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.
Meeting the Knights’ $500 million fundraising challenge marks the
largest documented challenge pledge to succeed, according to researchers
with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
“Penny and I have total confidence in Brian Druker and the entire
OHSU Knight Cancer Institute team to put a stop to a disease that
touches each of our lives,” Phil Knight said. “These last 22 months have
shown what is possible when people of vision focus on a single goal. We
are more convinced than ever that cancer will meet its match at OHSU,
and we are proud to play a role in this history in the making.”
With $1 billion in new funding, the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute will
begin fast-track recruitment of about 25 of the world’s top
researchers. These recruits will, in turn, hire an additional 225 to 275
scientists and physicians, forming a team focused on the detection of
cancer, including the early biological changes in the body that signal a
lethal cancer is beginning to develop. Catching the disease in these
very early stages will unleash the full potential of precision cancer
medicine. It will make it possible to detect cancer when it first starts
and treat it when it’s most curable, with the fewest side effects and
at the lowest cost.
These scientists will be given substantial financial support, so they
can focus on discovery instead of spending time securing grants. With
this expansion, OHSU will also move forward with construction of two
buildings ― a state-of-the-art cancer research facility designed from
the ground up to support a new model of combining scientific disciplines
to speed progress and new cancer care clinics for expanded clinical
trials that will translate the scientific discoveries made by the team
into next-generation detection tests, tools and treatments.
“This is a historic milestone for cancer research, for Oregon and for our institution,” said OHSU President
Joe Robertson, M.D., M.B.A.
“The support we have received to achieve our ambitious goal ― putting
an end to cancer as we know it ― has been nothing short of stunning. We
are deeply grateful to the state of Oregon for its leadership and
investment at the early stages of our campaign as well as to the
thousands of individuals, companies and foundations who joined us along
the way.”
In the past few weeks, more than $20 million in donations came in to
support the campaign, including significant gifts from Cambia Health
Foundation; Pat and Stephanie Kilkenny of San Diego, California; Mark
Wolfson and Jasper Ridge Partners; Intel Corporation; Wayne D. Kuni and
Joan E. Kuni Foundation; the Blumenfeld family of New York City; the
Wendt family of Klamath Falls, Oregon; and Consumer Cellular.
- The largest gift received since the campaign launched in 2013 was
from the state of Oregon, which invested $200 million for the needed
research and clinical facilities.
- The largest gift from an individual ―$100 million — came from Columbia Sportswear Chairman Gert Boyle.
- In all, more than 10,000 donors participated and, of these, more than half were first-time donors to OHSU.
- Donations were received from every state in the nation and five countries.
“Our work is just beginning,” added
L. Keith Todd,
president of the OHSU Foundation. “The Knight Cancer Challenge created
an unstoppable movement against cancer. We will continue our efforts to
ensure OHSU has all the resources it needs to achieve its vision. Our
sense of urgency will not recede until we have fully delivered on the
promise of stopping this life-threatening disease.”
The Knights made their challenge pledge in September 2013 after being
inspired by the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s goal to revolutionize
how cancer is detected. The challenge pledge follows their $100 million
gift to OHSU in 2008 to support Druker’s work, which helped pioneer the
field of precision medicine.
Druker conducted the breakthrough research that led to the
development of Gleevec® for chronic myeloid leukemia. This once-a-day
cancer pill proved it was possible to kill cancer cells without harming
healthy cells. Since he first proved this new type of treatment was
possible, many other precision treatments have been developed ― making
less toxic, tailored cancer treatment a reality for many patients and
launching the field of personalized or precision medicine.
“Today too many patients die or have to suffer through debilitating
treatments because their disease is caught too late. Too few physicians
and scientists are focused on this problem in a meaningful way and we
are committed to filling that gap,” Druker said. “We are thankful to
everyone who is making this goal a reality.”
About the Knight Cancer Institute
The
Knight Cancer Institute
at Oregon Health & Science University is a pioneer in the field of
personalized cancer medicine. The institute's director, Brian Druker,
M.D., helped prove it was possible to shut down cells that enable cancer
to grow without harming healthy cells. This breakthrough has made
once-fatal forms of the disease manageable and ushered in a new
generation of targeted cancer therapies. The OHSU Knight Cancer
Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center
between Sacramento and Seattle – an honor earned only by the nation's
top cancer centers. It offers the latest treatments and technologies as
well as hundreds of research studies and clinical trials.
About OHSU
Oregon Health & Science University
is a nationally prominent research university and Oregon’s only public
academic health center. It serves patients throughout the region with a
Level 1 trauma center and nationally recognized Doernbecher Children’s
Hospital. OHSU operates dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools
that rank high both in research funding and in meeting the university’s
social mission. OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute helped pioneer
personalized medicine through a discovery that identified how to shut
down cells that enable cancer to grow without harming healthy ones. OHSU
Brain Institute scientists are nationally recognized for discoveries
that have led to a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and new
treatments for Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke.
OHSU’s Casey Eye Institute is a global leader in ophthalmic imaging, and
in clinical trials related to eye disease.
