News

This summer, Huntsman Cancer Institute welcomed back its PathMaker Programs for Cancer Research. Sixteen students and four secondary school science teachers learned valuable lessons while sharing amazing experiences together.

Patients, doctors, scientists, donors, and community members gathered on June 23, 2021 to mark the opening of a major new resource for cancer care in Utah. The Senator Orrin G. Hatch Proton Therapy Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) is the first of its kind in the Mountain West and one of only 37 such centers nationwide.

You might not see us during your visit to Huntsman Cancer Institute, but we want to let you know that we are working hard in the Varley Lab in the HCI research building next door. We conduct research that improves the treatment and care of patients like you. We are a small group of dedicated young men and women who are developing new strategies to diagnose and treat breast and ovarian cancer.

Dear patients, please know this as you go through your breast cancer treatment journey. The dedicated technical staff, PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows in the Welm Labs continue to work hard every day (and night!) to bring new hope to people with metastatic breast cancer through innovative research, always with patients in mind.

The National Cancer Institute has renewed the designation of Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest federal rank possible for a cancer research organization. This grant awards HCI more than $29 million over seven years, an increase of 84% in annual funding from the previous award cycle.

Over the last three decades, colorectal cancer survival in the United States has improved significantly. But in young people incidence and mortality due to colorectal cancer are on the rise. Even among patients with early-stage colorectal cancer, racial disparities have grown more pronounced, with survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis poorer among African Americans compared with whites. Charles R. Rogers, PhD, MPH, MS, is working to better understand these factors in young people with colorectal cancer in order to help improve outcomes and reduce related disparities from this preventable disease.

Construction at the Senator Orrin G. Hatch Proton Therapy Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute is well underway. On March 28, a 15-ton proton accelerator arrived and was installed at the future center. This marks a major milestone for the project slated for a December 2020 debut.

The PathMaker Program definitely had a significant impact on my career path. It was what opened the door to the research world and provided me with the support I needed even after completing the program. I learned that even though my internship ended, the relationships and contacts I gained in the program did not. PathMaker has helped me in every step of my career, and I will be forever grateful.