2013 ANNUAL REPORT Ending Cancer Is a Bold Goal, but It Is One That Can Be Achieved by Working Together
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2013 ANNUAL REPORT Ending cancer is a bold goal, but it is one that can be achieved by working together. Every day, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientists collaborate with colleagues, physicians, study participants and thousands of private supporters to save lives. Your support is more important than ever before: Join us in celebrating our shared successes. Together we can end cancer. 2 FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER | 2013 ANNUAL REPORT Matt Hagen MESSAGE FROM DR. LARRY COREY, PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR With your help, Fred Hutch is focused on eliminating cancer and other diseases he theme of our annual report this life and his accomplishments. Don’s volunteer, and corporate and community Tyear, Ending Cancer Together, is a achievements, which have saved the partner who supports their research distillation of Fred Hutchinson Cancer lives of hundreds of thousands of people shares in that legacy. This report Research Center’s core strategy. Since around the world, were born of his gift highlights just a handful of the many our inception, we have been focused on for bringing exceptional people together collaborations that sustain Fred Hutch’s eliminating cancer and related diseases and inspiring them all to pursue the efforts to end cancer. as causes of suffering and death through singular goal of making bone marrow I extend my gratitude to all whose the concerted work of a diverse and transplantation (BMT) into a lifesaving contributions and energy enable us dedicated community. medical therapy. BMT was and still is, in to continue pioneering better care Dr. E. Donnall Thomas knew the my opinion, medicine’s most complex for patients. The generosity of our necessity of this collaborative approach. procedure. The procedure requires a benefactors and volunteers, the fortitude Don, who passed away in October 2012, wide variety of skills from laboratory of our patients and families, and the will forever be remembered as the scientists to incredibly skilled nurses, audacity of our researchers never fail, father of bone marrow transplantation pharmacists and caretakers — all and they never fail to inspire me. I because of his resolute efforts to orchestrated into the interrelated efforts look forward with great anticipation to establish the treatment as a cure for of curing leukemia and lymphoma. another year of enduring partnerships leukemia and other blood diseases. Don gave us a model for selfless, and new connections that will only But he did not succeed alone — focused teamwork which everyone enhance Fred Hutch’s ability to improve something vividly evident when we all affiliated with Fred Hutch follows to this human health and save lives. gathered last fall with his wife, Dottie, day. Every researcher and staff member their children, and so many of his who strives for the next breakthrough friends and colleagues to celebrate his and every benefactor, study participant, 3 FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER | 2013 ANNUAL REPORT Remembering the father of bone marrow transplantation CONTINUED NEXT PAGE > DR. E. DONNALL THOMAS PIONEERED BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION AND RECEIVED THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE IN 1990. Photo by Suzie Fitzhugh DR. E. DONNALL THOMAS ACCEPTING THE 1990 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE. Photo courtesy of Nobel Foundation he world lost one of the greatest figures in 21st century by Thomas on the use of bone marrow transplantation as a Tmedicine when Dr. E. Donnall Thomas died on October treatment for leukemia. 20, 2012, at the age of 92. The radical concept captured Appelbaum’s imagination, For his pioneering work developing bone marrow and he dedicated his studies and career to the emerging field transplantation, Thomas received the 1990 Nobel Prize in of transplantation research. In 1977, Appelbaum was working Physiology or Medicine. His work was foundational in the at the National Institutes of Health, researching marrow creation of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in transplantation, when Thomas himself called to offer a position Seattle. With more than 1 million bone marrow transplantations at the Hutch, which had opened in Seattle two years earlier. performed throughout the world, Thomas’ work has touched – It was an incredible turn of events for Appelbaum, who had and saved countless lives. closely followed Thomas’ pioneering research ever since he One of the people deeply affected by Thomas was his picked up that medical journal in 1970. friend and protégé Fred Appelbaum, newly named Hutch “Honestly, to me, it was like the heavens opening, God deputy director and longtime director of Fred Hutch’s Clinical looking down and saying: ‘Would you like to come to Seattle?’” Research Division and executive director of the Seattle Cancer he said. It was the start of a long friendship and collaboration Care Alliance. that helped to establish Appelbaum as a leading expert in In 1970, Appelbaum was a medical student when he transplantation research and care. happened to pick up a medical journal featuring a paper CONTINUED NEXT PAGE > 5 FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER | 2013 ANNUAL REPORT NEWLY NAMED HUTCH DEPUTY DIRECTOR FRED APPELBAUM WAS INSPIRED TO STUDY TRANSPLANTATION BY DON THOMAS. Photo by Matt Hagen To Appelbaum, Thomas epitomized the classic image of the Thomas came to Seattle in 1963 to be the first head of the physician-researcher who cares deeply for his patients and Division of Oncology at the University of Washington School dedicates his life to the science of helping countless others. of Medicine. Thomas led a small team that sought to do what “Don was a hero. He was, by far, the most influential person many medical experts at the time were convinced would in my career, and I know that many others would say the same never work: cure leukemia and other cancers of the blood thing,” Fred said. by destroying a patient’s diseased bone marrow with near- lethal doses of radiation and chemotherapy, and then rescuing At Fred Hutch, where he was a mentor and inspiration to the patient by transplanting healthy marrow. The goal was to so many, Thomas was a larger than life figure who was also establish a fully functioning and cancer-free blood and immune counted by many as a dear friend. system. “To the world, Don Thomas will forever be known as the Alongside his research partner and wife, Dottie – a father of bone marrow transplantation, but to his colleagues trained medical technologist – Thomas stubbornly pursued at Fred Hutch he will be remembered as a friend, colleague, transplantation throughout the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, mentor and pioneer,” said Dr. Larry Corey, president and hematologists and oncologists preferred to treat patients director of Fred Hutch, shortly after Thomas’ death. “The work with drugs, and prevailing thought was that the transplant Don did to establish marrow transplantation as a successful procedure was so radical and dangerous it was unethical to treatment for leukemia and other otherwise fatal diseases of administer to patients. the blood is responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the globe.” But years of research advances by Thomas and his colleagues steadily improved bone marrow transplantation CONTINUED NEXT PAGE > 6 FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER | 2013 ANNUAL REPORT “Every cancer center would aspire to creating new approaches to curing cancer, but very few have had that good fortune. Don and Dottie’s work created a completely new paradigm of cancer treatment that we continue to exploit to this day.” – Nobel Laureate and Fred Hutch Director Emeritus Lee Hartwell DON AND DOTTIE THOMAS AT 2005 PATIENT REUNION. Photo by Jim Linna and reduced the risk posed by its side effects. That progress, One of Appelbaum’s favorite stories about Thomas’ humble as well as the procedure’s potential, convinced Seattle spirit came from the day he received word that he won the surgeon William Hutchinson to support Thomas and his team Nobel Prize. When Thomas came to work at the hospital that by establishing their own dedicated research facility. Fred day, the first thing he did was to go to the nurses’ station and Hutch broke ground in 1972 and opened in 1975. congratulate and thank his colleagues all for the work and In 1974, Thomas joined the Hutch’s faculty as its first dedication they had shown. director of medical oncology. He later became associate “He was incredibly generous to his team. It’s just the kind of director and eventually director of the Clinical Research man he was,” Appelbaum said. Division. He stepped down from that position at age 70 in Don Thomas is survived by his wife, Dottie, and their three 1990 and officially retired from the Hutch in 2002. children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. n During his tenure at Fred Hutch, Thomas recruited scientists and physicians who could help address each of the numerous challenges associated with transplantation. “Every cancer center would aspire to creating new approaches to curing cancer, but very few have had that good fortune. Don and Dottie’s work created a completely Fred Hutch’s bone marrow transplantation research is new paradigm of cancer treatment that we continue to exploit made possible in part through the contributions of to this day,” said Dr. Lee Hartwell, Fred Hutch director numerous benefactors, including a generous gift from emeritus and 2001 Nobel laureate, in a video commemorating Dr. Steve Collins made in memory of Dr. Don Thomas. Thomas’ life. 7 FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER | 2013 ANNUAL REPORT DR. HANS-PETER KIEM, CENTER, DR. JENNIFER ADAIR, LEFT, AND PATIENT CHARLIE BURGESS, LOOK AT PROTEIN DATA, KNOWN AS WESTERN BLOTS, DERIVED FROM CHARLIE’S OWN SAMPLES. Photo by Matt Hagen ‘The cancer is really gone’ n the Fourth of July in 2009 Charles Burgess “I would slip away and slip back.