Hutchinson Center to Build First U.S. Cancer Clinic and Training Facility in
Africa Thanks, in Part, to a Grant From USAID
Seattle and Ugandan researchers collaborate to study and treat
infection-related cancers
SEATTLE, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on the strengths of two institutions
separated by nearly 9,000 miles over two continents - both renowned in their
work in the fight against cancer - the United States Agency for International
Development has awarded a $500,000 grant to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center to aid in the construction of the first American cancer clinic and
medical-training facility in Africa.
"This is the first true collaboration between an African and a U.S.
institution to attempt to reduce cancer-related suffering through
collaborative medical care and training," said Hutchinson Center
physician-scientist Corey Casper, M.D., M.P.H., scientific co-director of the
Uganda Program on Cancer and Infectious Diseases, a research effort begun in
2004 between the Hutchinson Center and the Uganda Cancer Institute, the
country's sole cancer clinic. The institute is located at Makerere University
Medical School on the campus of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, the nation's
capital.
The main goals of the collaboration, co-led by Jackson Orem, M.B.Ch.B.,
M.Med., director of the Uganda Cancer Institute, are to:
-- better understand the link between infectious disease and cancer;
-- improve access and delivery of clinical care to patients with
infection-related cancers in the U.S. and Uganda; and
-- train the next generation of American and Ugandan physicians and
scientists to combat infection-associated cancers at home and abroad.
"Up to one-quarter of the world's cancers are attributable to chronic
infections," Casper explained. "Better understanding the link between
infectious disease and cancer provides a unique opportunity to reduce
cancer-related suffering and death in both resource-rich and resource-poor
regions."
Casper and colleagues hope that this joint effort between the Hutchinson
Center and the Uganda Cancer Institute will benefit the world by identifying
new infectious causes of cancer, new ways to prevent infection-associated
cancers such as through the development of new vaccines, and new ways to treat
such cancers with nontoxic drugs, thus avoiding the need for chemotherapy.
Studying cancer in regions such as Uganda, where the burden of
infection-related malignancies is extreme, is optimal for developing rapid and
meaningful cancer treatments and diagnostics, said Casper, an assistant member
of the Hutchinson Center's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, one of
the nation's largest infectious disease research groups.
The World Health Organization estimates that chronic infectious diseases cause
more than 20 percent of all cancers in the world, including liver, cervical
and gastric malignancies. Infection-related cancers are more frequent and
often more severe in people infected with HIV. In resource-poor Uganda, the
HIV epidemic is fueling a 20,000-fold upsurge in Kaposi's sarcoma in adults
and Burkitt's lymphoma in children. Both are disfiguring cancers with abysmal
survival rates due to lack of access to early diagnosis and treatment.
While the grant from USAID's American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program
will contribute significantly to the construction of a new outpatient cancer
clinic and training facility, additional federal and private funding is being
sought to complete the $1.4 million project and to construct an adjacent
clinical and laboratory research building, said Banks Warden, executive
director of the Hutchinson Center's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute.
"We will soon launch a campaign to see if other foundations and individuals
are interested in supporting this effort. It is a wonderful opportunity for a
foundation or individual to come forward with a major gift to support global
health," Warden said.
Support for the project to date has come from several sources, from initial
funding provided by the Hutchinson Center and the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation to satellite grants from the National Institutes of Health and,
most recently, the USAID funding.
Securing this federal grant would not have been possible without broad support
from the Washington congressional delegation, Warden said. "We are deeply
indebted to our senators and representatives who got behind our efforts 100
percent," he said.
A letter of support signed by the congressional members stated: "Cancer is all
too common in East Africa, with the number of new cases diagnosed annually
approximating the number of deaths. With these infrastructure improvements,
cancer treatment for Ugandans will dramatically improve. In addition, the
collaboration ... will allow for important questions about the biology of
infectious-disease related cancers to be answered. Solutions discovered will
be applicable globally."
Research conducted to date through the Seattle/Uganda partnership already has
determined that many of the infectious diseases that cause cancer in
low-resource areas are treatable at minimal costs. For example, it is
estimated that 85 percent of Burkitt's lymphoma (associated with human
herpesvirus 4, also known as Epstein-Barr virus), the most common cancer in
children from East Africa who are on average 5 years old when afflicted, can
be cured for less than $600 a case. Similarly, 75 percent of Kaposi's sarcoma
(associated with human herpesvirus 8, or HHV-8), the most common cancer in
East African adults, can be treated for less than $720 a case.
The Uganda Cancer Institute, established in 1967 in collaboration with the
U.S. National Cancer Institute, has been the site of many landmark
accomplishments, such as discovering new cancers, including Burkitt's
lymphoma, and developing novel treatment regimens. Over the years, however,
the institute has fallen victim to neglect attributable to periods of
tumultuous national politics. Its five cinderblock buildings bear scars of the
nation's troubled past.
Upon completion of the new, state-of-the-art facility, the Ugandan Ministry of
Health has pledged $1.8 million to renovate and repurpose the existing
buildings of the cancer institute. The renovation will include the
construction of an inpatient facility. The Hutchinson Center has also
committed $400,000 to construct new laboratory space for molecular
diagnostics. The master plan for these renovation and construction projects
was provided by facilities planning and construction staff at the Hutchinson
Center.
Ultimately, the provision of new facilities for inpatient and outpatient
cancer care, education and research will allow the Seattle/Uganda
collaboration to:
-- provide first-rate cancer care in Uganda - a country of more than 30
million with one of the highest cancer rates in the world - and
improve
survival from most common cancers from 10 percent to 90 percent,
saving
an estimated 6,000 lives each year;
-- study the intersection between infections and cancer by promoting
cutting-edge research aimed at pathophysiology, prevention, diagnosis
and treatment of infection-related cancers in Africa; and
-- improve the quality of medical education in oncology and increase the
number of cancer specialists in Africa seven-fold (there are currently
just two practicing full-time oncologists in Uganda).
One of the biggest benefits the Hutchinson Center is bringing to Uganda is a
training program to address the country's lack of cancer specialists. Two
Ugandan physician-scientists have already spent year-long fellowships at the
Hutchinson Center; five more will be trained in the next three years. There
are also plans to expand the training program to include other medical
professionals, such as nurses and pharmacologists, Casper said.
The Hutchinson Center also plans to send up to 20 of its faculty members to
Uganda in the next five years as part of a faculty exchange program.
Researchers in oncology, infectious disease and epidemiology will provide
training in a wide variety of subjects to Ugandan clinicians and scientists.
They also will have the opportunity to initiate research projects in
collaboration with Ugandan researchers.
"My hope," Casper said, "is that over the next five years we establish a
first-class facility in Uganda, train a significant number of Ugandan
cancer-care providers and that people who are interested in international
oncology will come to the Center for the chance to work in Uganda.
The collaborative effort is also an opportunity for the Hutchinson Center to
help mobilize humanitarian aid in this East African nation, where proper
nutrition and medical care is scarce and where the families of patients are
responsible for all nonmedical care, including food.
"Having a healthy population is essential for the fabric and stability of the
nation," Casper said. "It is the Hutchinson Center's obligation to seek the
resources needed to provide care to the patients and clinical-research
volunteers in Uganda. It's also the right thing to do. There can be no greater
mandate in cancer research than to wage the fight by doing the right thing."
Photos of the Uganda Program on Cancer and Infectious Diseases Clinic and
Training Center are available at this link:
http://tr.im/ugandacancerinstitute. For more information about UPCID, please
visit www.upcid.org.
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, interdisciplinary teams of
world-renowned scientists and humanitarians work together to prevent, diagnose
and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Hutchinson Center researchers,
including three Nobel laureates, bring a relentless pursuit and passion for
health, knowledge and hope to their work and to the world. For more
information, please visit fhcrc.org.
This project is made possible in part by the support of the American people
through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The
contents are the sole responsibility of the Uganda Program on Cancer and
Infectious Diseases (UPCID), a joint program of Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center and the Uganda Cancer Institute, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
CONTACT
Kristen Woodward
206-667-2896
kwoodwar@fhcrc.org
SOURCE Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Kristen Woodward of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, +1-206-667-2896,
kwoodwar@fhcrc.org
