SEATTLE (April 1, 2022) – Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), Seattle Children’s and UW Medicine have completed the restructure of their longtime relationship and the formation of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, a unified adult cancer research and care center.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center brings together Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and SCCA into a single, independent, nonprofit organization that is also a clinically integrated part of UW Medicine and UW Medicine’s cancer program.
“Today’s milestone is a tremendous step toward our vision of decreasing the time between discovery and delivery of the most advanced treatments for our patients. It builds on the foundation and 20-year legacy that Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, SCCA, Seattle Children’s and UW Medicine have established,” said Dr. Thomas J. Lynch, Jr., president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and holder of the Raisbeck Endowed Chair. “As a unified organization, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center will focus on improving patient outcomes, accelerating research discoveries and cures and reducing barriers to how we collaborate. Ultimately, we want to deliver the latest scientific breakthroughs to our patients and provide them with the best possible care.”
Over the next year, SCCA’s eight clinical care sites will be rebranded as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center sites. UW Medicine physicians will continue providing cancer care to their current and future patients at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and University of Washington Medical Center. During the transition, high-quality patient care, research and operations will remain uninterrupted.
As part of this transition, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center establishes a new Board of Directors composed of 13 members, including nine community directors and four ex officio positions. The community directors bring a diverse range of expertise and perspectives from across health care, technology and professional services sectors. The ex officio positions are held by leaders at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and UW Medicine. Kathy Surace-Smith, vice president and general counsel of NanoString Technologies, was the chair of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Board of Trustees and will now serve as board chair of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
“The formation of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center will help us redefine cancer research and care,” said Kathy Surace-Smith. “Our collaboration and connectivity across our clinical and research programs will help us accelerate lifesaving discoveries and improve outcomes for patients with cancer in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.”
“Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center will streamline and improve patients’ personalized care experience and build on SCCA’s and UW Medicine’s nationally recognized clinical and research excellence as well as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s and UW Medicine’s internationally renowned research programs,” said Dr. Paul Ramsey, chief executive officer, UW Medicine. “The unification of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and SCCA and the clinical integration of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center with UW Medicine will bring research and care closer together, leveraging the strengths of all organizations to ensure that patients can access groundbreaking treatments and cures as quickly as possible.”
Seattle Children's, an original SCCA alliance partner, will work in close partnership with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to advance breakthroughs in adult and pediatric oncology. “Caring for children when they need us most and working to advance pediatric research is what inspires us,” said Dr. Jeff Sperring, chief executive officer, Seattle Children’s. “We will continue to invest in and expand Seattle Children’s leading pediatric cancer and blood disorders care and research to serve kids today and into the future and look forward to continued collaboration with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.”
The merged organization will focus on integrating teams and operations over the coming weeks and months. A new Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center brand will be introduced later this year.
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About Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, home to three Nobel laureates, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Fred Hutch’s pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation led to the development of immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer. An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Fred Hutch houses the nation’s first National Cancer Institute-funded cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Women’s Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the COVID-19 Prevention Network. For more information about Fred Hutch, visit fredhutch.org.
About Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) brings together the leading research teams and cancer specialists from Fred Hutch, Seattle Children’s and UW Medicine – one extraordinary group whose sole purpose is the pursuit of better, longer, richer lives for our patients. Based in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, SCCA is the only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center in Washington state. In addition to its Proton Therapy Center in Seattle, SCCA has nine clinical care sites in the region, including a medical oncology clinic at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland; hematology/medical oncology and infusion services at Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, medical and radiation oncology clinics at UW Medical Center—Northwest in Seattle and SCCA Peninsula in Poulsbo, and medical oncology services at SCCA Issaquah, as well as Network affiliations with hospitals in five states. UWMC/SCCA has been recognized as the 9th Best Cancer Hospital for 2020-21 by U.S. News & World Report, and the only ranked number one cancer hospital in the Pacific Northwest for more than ten years. For more information about SCCA, visit seattlecca.org.
About Seattle Children’s
Seattle Children’s mission is to provide hope, care and cures to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible. Together, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Research Institute and Foundation deliver superior patient care, identify new discoveries and treatments through pediatric research and raise funds to create better futures for patients. Ranked as one of the top children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Children’s serves as the pediatric and adolescent academic medical center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho – the largest region of any children’s hospital in the country. As one of the nation’s top five pediatric research centers, Seattle Children’s Research Institute is internationally recognized for its work in neurosciences, immunology, cancer, infectious disease, injury prevention and much more. Seattle Children’s Foundation works with the Seattle Children’s Guild Association, the largest all-volunteer fundraising network for any hospital in the country, to gather community support and raise funds for uncompensated care and research. For more information about Seattle Children’s, visit seattlechildrens.org.
About UW Medicine
UW Medicine is one of the top-rated integrated clinical, research and learning health systems in the world. With a mission to improve the health of the public, UW Medicine educates the next generation of physicians and scientists, leads one of the world's largest and most comprehensive biomedical research programs and provides outstanding care to patients from across the globe. Our family of nearly 29,000 healthcare providers, researchers, faculty and staff includes Airlift Northwest, Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center, UW Medicine Primary Care, UW Physicians, UW School of Medicine and Valley Medical Center. The UW School of Medicine is second in the nation in National Institutes of Health research grants with $1.3 billion according to the U.S. News & World Report Best Medical School Rankings (fiscal year 2020). For more information about UW Medicine, visit uwmedicine.org.
Contact Us
Fred Hutch: media@fredhutch.org, 206.667.2210
SCCA: media@seattlecca.org, 206.640.4782
Seattle Children’s: press@seattlechildrens.org
UW Medicine: sghanson@uw.edu, 206.390.3226