cancer
March 5, 2025
United vision
A new relationship between UW Medicine and Fred Hutch creates the UW’s nationally renowned adult cancer program.
September 13, 2024
The comeback kid
Eason Yang, a designer and social innovator, is creating ways for cancer survivors to overcome bias and get back to work.
November 25, 2023
Probing a mystery
A UW center takes an innovative approach to solving one of medicine’s vexing problems: when organ transplants mysteriously lead to cancer.
First lady visits
The first lady, Jill Biden, visited the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center this fall, discussing the Biden Cancer Moonshot.
September 4, 2021
Fred Hutch, SCCA merging
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Seattle Children’s are restructuring their relationship,.
Hope and healing
A researcher combats cancer with the help of UW doctors and tools developed by his colleagues.
June 1, 2021
Speeding up the science
Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson lost their daughter to an uncommon form of cancer. Their philanthropy aims to expand research and bring hope to patients and their families.
September 21, 2020
A twist of fate
Ayan Hassan’s life was changed by the Making Connections program—and then unexpectedly saved by one of the program’s founders.
March 1, 2017
Cancer calamity
Disparities in health care access hit communities of color hard—particularly when it comes to cancer.
June 1, 2014
Life guard
Art Levinson, the driving force behind several cancer-fighting drugs, is the 2014 Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus, the highest award bestowed upon UW alumni.
December 1, 2013
Immortal life
The cover of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks succinctly proclaims the book’s storyline: “Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than 20 years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.”
June 1, 2013
Moving mission
Catching up with Patrick Gallaher, ’95, founder of the School of Pharmacy’s Memorial Day weekend Border-to-Border relay race that for the past 18 years has raised money for cancer research in honor of his late father.
Probing DNA
The University of Washington Adult Medical Genetics Clinic is not only well-established—both UW and Johns Hopkins started the first genetics programs in 1957—but is widely considered the best in the world.
December 1, 2011
Ben's fund
Carin Towne, ’95, ’02, and her husband Jeff, ’95, have turned a personal tragedy into a ray of hope for parents of children with cancer.
June 1, 2011
Pulling for Paul
While Paul Dann, ’83, of Richland, received cancer treatment at the UW Medical Center, his daughter Claire got busy and organized a Relay for Life team she named “Paul’s Pals.”
September 1, 2010
Beyond the gridiron
There is more to Jake Locker than just football. As he enters his final year at the UW and readies for a potentially lucrative career in the NFL, he remains a college student at heart.
September 1, 2009
Gretchen Howison Whiting, 1968-2009
When Gretchen Howison Whiting, ’90, was diagnosed with stage III melanoma in 2004, she began a journey—not just to heal herself but to educate the public about the deadly disease, push for more funding for melanoma research, and continue to live her life to the fullest.
March 1, 2009
Knowing the enemy
A little more than 10 years ago, Kristin Swanson, a graduate student in applied mathematics at the UW, began work on an audacious project: an equation to model the growth and spread of brain tumors in individual patients.
December 1, 2006
Legacy of giving
Moments after Ellsworth C. “Buster” and Nancy D. Alvord received the Gates Volunteer Service Award at the Fifth Annual Recognition Gala Sept. 8, the couple made a surprise announcement. They will help create a Center of Excellence for Neuro-oncology at the University by establishing with their family six new endowed faculty chairs.
March 1, 2005
Wake-up call
Can radiation from cellphones damage DNA in our brains? When a UW researcher found disturbing data, funding became tight and one industry leader threatened legal action.
June 1, 2004
James Clowes, 1957-2004
Lecturer James Clowes, ’96, who helped revolutionize the University of Washington’s history program, died of cancer March 1, 2004. He was 47.
June 1, 2002
William Dwyer, 1929-2002
William L. Dwyer, ’52, a preeminent figure in the Northwest legal community during a career that spanned nearly half a century, died after a two-year battle with lung cancer.
A gift of hope
I hate everything about pancreatic cancer, but what I hate the most is its lack of hope. It is a death sentence with no prospect of a pardon. But that may be changing.
Fatal inheritance
After losing her mother and brother to pancreatic cancer, Sheri Mayer faced the difficult choice of having her pancreas removed or trying to beat the odds.
December 1, 2001
Nobel Laureate
UW Genetics Professor Lee Hartwell won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology for his basic research on cell division.
December 1, 2000
Why cells go bad
Once just a theory, Lawrence Loeb's mutation breakthrough could lead to new cancer treatments and even an unconventional way to stop AIDS.
September 1, 1999
Stem cell breakthrough
A team of UW scientists has found a way to grow stem cells from mice in the laboratory.
March 1, 1998
Allied on cancer
Seattle-based leaders in the fight against cancer announced Oct. 27 that they are forming a new clinical cancer program.
June 1, 1997
At research center, patients take on risk for the sake of a cure
From bone marrow transplants to cancer vaccines, patients in the Clinical Research Center opt for experiments that could save lives, maybe even their own.
September 1, 1996
Mary-Claire King put the pieces together
The devastation of watching her best friend die of a kidney tumor triggered Mary-Claire King's unconscious decision to search for a cure.
Cancer detective
After discovering the gene linked to breast cancer, Mary-Claire King now is on the hunt for ways to combat the disease.
June 1, 1996
New hope for ways to reverse breast and ovarian cancers
Biologists have found the first direct evidence suggesting that the gene known to cause hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancers can also halt—and in some cases reverse—both diseases.
September 1, 1995
Estrogen-cancer link disproved
Women who take estrogen or a combination of estrogen and progestin as hormone replacement therapy apparently do not face an increased risk of breast cancer.
September 1, 1994
Freeze on cancer
Tumors in the prostate and liver have a new nemesis in the Pacific Northwest—a UW Medical Center machine that can freeze and destroy cancer cells.
June 1, 1993
Turning cancer off
UW researchers have discovered a way to artificially make a cell cancerous and then reverse the process of unchecked cell growth.
March 1, 1993
Risky business
Peanut butter or bacon is more dangerous than a glass of juice from Alar-treated apples, say UW experts, who want to clear the air about environmental risks.
March 1, 1992
Tree of hope
Once seen as worthless, the Pacific Yew is the only natural source of taxol, a powerful cancer-fighting drug.