Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, commonly referred to as "Fred Hutch," is a nonprofit biomedical research institution located in downtown Seattle, Washington. Established in 1965 in memory of baseball player Fred Hutchinson, the center has become a leader in cancer research and treatment. It is part of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), which collaborates with the University of Washington and Children’s Hospital to provide comprehensive clinical care for both adults and children. Recognized as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Fred Hutch is known for its pioneering work in bone marrow transplants and innovative therapies, including immunotherapy and gene therapy.
The center boasts a strong research faculty, with multiple Nobel Prize winners contributing to its mission of advancing cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. Additionally, since the early 1980s, Fred Hutch has been involved in providing cancer information services across several states and territories, further extending its impact on public health. With a commitment to uniting scientific excellence and patient care, Fred Hutch continues to play a vital role in the global fight against cancer.
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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
DEFINITION: The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is a nonprofit biomedical research institution in downtown Seattle, Washington. A partnership of the Hutchinson Center with the University of Washington and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center forms the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), which provides clinical care to adult and pediatric patients.
History and founding: William B. Hutchinson, a native of Seattle, attended the University of Washington, where he was captain of the baseball team. Hutchinson was offered a contract with a Class AAA baseball team in California after graduation but chose instead to attend medical school at McGill University in Montreal. After he came back to Seattle in 1940 to practice medicine, he returned to baseball as team physician to the Seattle Rainiers baseball team. His love for baseball and other sports was also manifest in his work with local youth athletic programs. In 1956, he founded the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, an institution for research into heart surgery, diseases of the system, and cancer.
Hutchinson’s brother Fred shared his brother’s talent for baseball. He was a major-league pitcher for the Detroit Tigers from 1939 through 1953 and later was the team manager for the Tigers, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Cincinnati Reds. In 1964, Fred Hutchinson was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died of the illness the same year. In memory of his brother, William B. Hutchinson established the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in 1965 as a division of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation. The FHCRC separated from the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation in 1972, and the independent FHCRC opened its facility in 1975.
Current facilities: The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is one of fifty-seven centers nationwide designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center. The NCI designation is awarded to cancer centers deemed to have earned scientific excellence in cancer research and that provide a full range of cancer diagnostic and treatment services.
The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) was formed in 1998 as a partnership of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington Medicine (made up of the University of Washington School of Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center, and University of Washington Neighborhood Clinics), and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center. The mission of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is to unite research and outstanding patient care to provide state-of-the-art cancer treatment.
Another collaboration, formed in 2002, between the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington, and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center is the Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium. The consortium allows participating institutions to combine their expertise to further cancer research with the development of leading research programs spanning many types of cancer. A large faculty of researchers involved in basic, clinical, and public health disciplines contribute efforts in seventeen research programs. The NCI designation as a comprehensive cancer center has included the consortium since 2003.
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is one of only two comprehensive cancer center in the Pacific Northwest designated by the NCI. The other is Knight Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon. Beginning in the early 1980s, the National Cancer Institute contracted with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to provide services to the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, and to operate as one of more than a dozen NCI Cancer Information Service Contact Centers around the country. As of 2004, it was one of four such centers nationwide, and five years later, it was signed as the sole contact center, serving as the clearinghouse of cancer information for the United States, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the US Associated Pacific Territories.
In 2014, the organization adopted the name "Fred Hutch," its longtime nickname, as a method of rebranding.
Research: Three Nobel Prize winners in medicine have come from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. E. Donnell Thomas received the prize, shared with Joseph E. Murray, in 1990 for research into cell and organ transplantation in treating people. Lee Hartwell received the prize along with R. Timothy Hunt and Paul M. Nurse for research into the key regulators of the cell cycle. Linda B. Beck shared the prize in 2004 with Richard Axel from Columbia University for research into odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.
Research at the FHCRC focuses on improving the for people worldwide through its initiatives in cancer prevention and early detection of cancers and by focusing on novel therapies, such as immunotherapy (fighting cancer by using the individual’s own immune system), gene therapy, and organ and cell transplantation, carrying on the research of Nobel Prize winner Thomas.
Specialization: Direct patient services offered through the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) include adult and pediatric oncology services using teams. Some areas of special expertise at the FHCRC include treatment of leukemias (cancers of the blood and the bone marrow, where blood cells are made) and treatment of lymphomas (cancers of the lymph nodes). The FHCRC is known internationally for its early work with bone marrow transplants and performs all types of donor transplants for bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells, and umbilical cord blood from related and unrelated donors.
Bibliography
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Eyre, Harmon, and Dianne Partie Lange, eds. Informed Decisions: The Complete Book of Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery. 2nd ed. Atlanta: Amer. Cancer Soc., 2002. Print.
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"SCCA Overview." Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, 2004–14. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.