The Northwest’s top health concern mirrors the rest of America

By Clayton Holtzman, Hutchinson Center science writer

Here in the Northwest, where we take pride in being actively engaged with our beautiful natural surroundings, there’s a growing health issue no one can afford to ignore: Smoking, you say? The lack of Vitamin D? Cancer, perhaps?

Hutchinson Center team played key role in scientific breakthrough of the year

By Colleen Steelquist, Hutchinson Center Science Editor

The Hutchinson Center’s Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research & Prevention played a major behind-the-scenes role in the HIV prevention study that Science magazine recently chose as its scientific breakthrough of the year for 2011.

In the war against cancer, the ‘substantive heroism’ of clinical trial patients is on full display

By Colleen Steelquist, Hutchinson Center Science Editor

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee’s homage to the bravery of cancer patients in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, struck a chord with me. It made me think of my sister-in-law, Jenny, and her battle with aggressive multiple myeloma.

“The story of cancer isn’t the story of doctors who struggle and survive, moving from one institution to another,” Mukherjee wrote. “It is the story of patients who struggle and survive, moving from one embankment of illness to another.

Mindful snacking: what—and when—you nibble may help shed extra pounds

By Clay Holtzman, Hutchinson Center science writer

How’s this for an easy, diet-related New Year’s resolution: If you can’t give up snacking between meals, just make sure nothing hits your belly between breakfast and lunch.

A new study by the Hutchinson Center’s Anne McTiernan, a cancer prevention researcher, shows that the little bites you have after breakfast and before lunch—the pastry at the coffee stand or the sweet hidden in your desk drawer—is taking a big bite out of your diet plan.

A special Thanksgiving for a bone marrow donor, a cancer survivor … and the Hutchinson Center

By Justin Matlick, Hutchinson Center science writer

A few years ago, Joanne Wilkie might have thought you were crazy if you told her she’d spend this Thanksgiving traveling from her native Scotland to a small city in the Eastern Washington desert. She would have found it even stranger to hear that her bone marrow cells got there six years before she did.

Healthy for the holidays: 10 tips for cancer survivors … and the rest of us

Sure we all love the holidays, but for many of us, these are stressful times—and more so for many cancer survivors. So, here are 10 tips to help cancer survivors thrive during the busy holiday season. These tips, courtesy of  Dr. Karen Syrjala, co-director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Survivorship Program, also apply to anyone who wants a healthier holiday and less-stressful new year.

A fun night at the Hutchinson Center for children with brain cancer—and for the researchers looking for a cure

By Clay Holtzman, Hutchinson Center science writer

On a pleasant fall evening recently, dozens of children and their families rambled through the Hutchinson Center—a place typically reserved for serious cancer research—eating, laughing and dancing.

The children are brain tumor patients, some newly diagnosed. Others are young survivors with parents who continue to count their blessings. They all share an unbreakable bond with the host, Dr. Jim Olson, a member of the Center’s Clinical Research Division, and his staff.

Dr. Jim Olson

For more than two decades, Olson, a brain cancer researcher, has placed a high value on bridging the gap between research and patient care. It was this deep commitment to his patients that led to his lab’s annual patient appreciation night.

Age alone no longer a barrier to stem cell transplantation

By Ignacio Lobos, Hutchinson Center external Communications Editor

Age was once considered a defining factor to determine whether an older patient with blood cancer was a candidate for stem cell transplantation.

Many older and medically sicker patients could not tolerate the standard, more toxic, high-dose regimens used to prepare patients for transplantation. For many years after the Hutchinson Center pioneered bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, people over 40 were generally not eligible for either procedure, but thanks to work by Hutchinson Center researchers, that age limit started moving up.

‘An incredible opportunity’ to wipe out many cancers worldwide

In 2002, Dr. Corey Casper had a staggering realization: that it might be possible to obliterate 20 percent of cancer cases in the near future, using technology and medical knowledge that are available today.

One in five cancer cases is triggered by infectious disease, and Casper knew that Hutchinson Center researchers had already helped develop a vaccine that is 98 percent effective in stopping one of those infections, the human papillomavirus, from sparking cervical cancer. Casper believed we could make similar progress against other infection-related malignancies, which together cause 1.5 million deaths each year. But he needed to find a proving ground.

The search for a groundbreaking cancer treatment—Chapter 2 of 4

Editor’s note: This is the second posting of a four-part series by science writer Justin Matlick, who has become fascinated by cancer research at the Hutchinson Center. The series follows Dr. Colleen Delaney’s trajectory at the Hutchinson Center—and her attempts to bring better cancer therapies to her patients. In his first posting, Matlick explored Delaney’s pivotal decision to dedicate her career to fighting cancer.

Part 2: ‘What am I doing wrong and how can I make this better?’

By Justin Matlick, Hutchinson Center science writer

Science might be thought of as a white-collar pursuit, but it requires a blue-collar work ethic and dedication. That’s certainly true of translational research, which takes breakthrough discoveries and turns them into real-world treatments. So when Dr. Colleen Delaney started developing a new therapy for leukemia and other blood cancers, she knew it was going to be a long, complicated journey.

Dr. Colleen Delaney