Addie Backlund, Executive Director
At a recent luncheon at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Charles L. Sawyers, MD, Inaugural Director of their Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, explained that it is now possible to generate a complete map of cancer genes and diagnose tumor types, based upon genes. He told us that pharmaceutical companies are discovering new drugs that work against mutant cancer proteins, and a new generation of physician scientists is being trained.
If you glance at the cancer research project titles of the AICF Fellows, you will note that nearly all of their projects deal with genomes and genetics, molecules and molecular networks, and cell mutations. The work of the AICF Fellows, which is being carried out at the best cancer research centers in the world, is truly cutting edge. AICF is proud to have awarded 20 AICF Fellowships once again this year to today’s most promising young cancer researchers. We would not have been able to do this without the unfailing generosity of our donors.
Meanwhile, we know that one in five New York City residents is living in poverty. We know, too, that although there has been a 14 percent decrease in mortality from all cancers combined from 1991 to 2004, this reduction has not reached all segments of the American population.1 Racial and minority groups have significant disparities in cancer outcomes and consistently poorer health as a consequence of other substantial obstacles to receiving care, including less access to state-of-the-art health care.
This is why AICF’s mobile, no-cost Breast Cancer Screening Program recruits women to be screened for breast cancer who are fearful, ambivalent, or distrustful of the health care system—women from New York City neighborhoods with high poverty rates, low breast cancer screening rates, and high incidences of breast cancer who must come to understand the importance of annual breast cancer screenings if they are to beat the odds. Those served through AICF’s Program who are diagnosed with breast cancer receive high quality, timely care, regardless of insurance status, and are followed closely throughout the diagnostic and treatment processes by our persistent, yet empathetic, patient navigator.
AICF’s large mobile clinic, which travels the five boroughs to make screenings as convenient as possible, has received a major renovation and is now equipped with state-of-the-art, digital mobile mammography equipment manufactured by General Electric. We would like to thank the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York for providing partial support for this essential digital upgrade. We are grateful, too, to those who have come forth with operating or capital gifts to help us address disparities in breast cancer outcomes among New York City women.
