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In the history of cancer research and treatment, Yale is perhaps best known as the place where chemotherapy was discovered and first administered. But that was only one milestone in Yale’s long and rich tradition of excellence in basic science leading to improved therapies. The Yale Cancer Center continues to exemplify that tradition. The center’s thirteen research programs are linked by an infrastructure of shared resources, which enable investigators to conduct translational research of the highest order. With support from programs such as Critical Technologies or the DNA microarray, a cancer geneticist like Allen Bale, M.D., can use fruit flies to study the genetic predisposition to skin cancer, ovarian tumors, and brain tumors and apply new molecular techniques to clinical diagnosis of cancer predisposition syndromes. As understanding of cancer becomes increasingly subtle, collaborations among researchers and clinicians in diverse disciplines is crucial to progress against the disease. Investigators at the Yale Cancer Center today are making chemotherapy a more narrowly targeted, far less debilitating treatment than it has been. They are discovering new drugs to prevent and treat cancer, and they are studying traditional regimens from herbal remedies to acupuncture. They are testing vaccines that stimulate a patient’s own immune system to attack tumors. They are transplanting bone marrow and stem cells to rebuild patients’ immune systems. In short, they are marshaling forces on all fronts–prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and improving the quality of life for patients. The Yale Cancer Center is one of a select nationwide group of Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. It brings to bear the resources of Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale University School of Medicine on patient care, research, cancer prevention and control, community outreach, and education. Under the direction of Vincent T. DeVita Jr., M.D., former head of the National Cancer Institute and discoverer of the first effective treatment for Hodgkin’s disease, the outstanding doctors and scientists of the Yale Cancer Center are helping to make cancer “one of the most curable chronic diseases in the country today.” |
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 Vincent DeVita, head of the Yale Cancer Center, currently serves as co-chair of the advisory committee to the U.S. Senate that is looking at ways to update the thirty-year-old National Cancer Act. |
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Last modified: Wednesday, 11-Aug-2004 15:00:36 EDT. (PL) |