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The University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center

A donor gifts a total of $100,000 to the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center for cancer research. In the memo section of the bank cashier’s checks was a note with a directive to cure breast cancer. The remitter section was filled as, “God,” and the donor would like to stay anonymous.

“This donation, inspired by God, allows UH Cancer Center researchers to continue their committed fight against cancers that directly impact Hawaiʻi’s ethnically diverse population. Generous gestures like this from residents in the state help us continue working towards the development of new life-saving treatments and therapies,” said Jerris Hedges, dean of the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine and interim director of the UH Cancer Center.

The donation was gifted in two checks. The first check of $20,000 was designated to fund breast cancer research. The second check, issued 17 days later for $80,000 was marked to help “breast cancer and cure for all cancer.”

Fighting breast cancer in Hawaiʻi

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women in Hawaiʻi. Each year, more than 1,000 women in the state are newly diagnosed with the disease. Breast cancer along with cancer differences across ethnic groups in Hawaiʻi, are major focuses of research among scientists at the UH Cancer Center.

The donation will help fund cancer research at the center, which includes recent on-going studies such as the ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) pilot study. DCIS is a non-invasive form of breast cancer where an estimated up to 50 percent of cases may progress to invasive breast cancer if left untreated. At present there is no test to identify which DCIS lesions will become invasive and which will not.

“Having the ability to identify individuals with a high versus low risk of developing invasive breast cancer will help to reduce the overtreatment of individuals with DCIS. In addition, data indicates that there may be racial and ethnic differences in the proportion of DCIS cases that progress to invasive breast cancer. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the value of including that data in our multiethnic population,” said Lenora Loo, an assistant professor in the UH Cancer Center’s epidemiology program.

The study, which is a collaboration with the clinical community, aims to create a precise risk prediction test to reduce overtreatment of DCIS and lead towards a more personalized management of patients with breast cancer in Hawaiʻi.

—By Nana Ohkawa

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