75 years of Making Cancer History
Annual Report 2014
MD Anderson’s 2014 Annual Report highlights achievements and contributions of our faculty, staff, volunteers and donors in advancing the research, treatment and prevention of cancer. It also provides key financial and statistical data.
When doctors told Mariana Torrado she had breast cancer, she didn’t
believe them at first.
Triathlete and marathoner Leslie Russell teaches reading to children
with dyslexia in the Spring Branch Independent School District. It’s a
job she loves in the community where she grew up.
The good news is death rates continue to decline for the most common
types of cancer, including lung, colon, breast and prostate.
In keeping with a nationwide hospital trend to create softer, less
clinical surroundings for patients and families, MD Anderson’s
Facilities Management team is renovating waiting rooms throughout the
cancer center.
Tucked in the elbow crook of Louisiana’s eastern border with Mississippi
lies the small town of Independence.
When treating women with breast cancer, less is sometimes more.
When Marshall Loosier was diagnosed with rectal cancer and underwent a
colostomy 15 years ago, he worried about how the surgery would change
his life.
A truly patient-centered organization is one that involves patients and
families in the planning, delivery and evaluation of the care experience.
Like many first-time parents, Gerardo and Dilma Camarillo worried when
their 9-month-old daughter, Ivana, was running a fever. Pediatricians,
friends and family reassured them.
Tiny, virus-sized particles released by cancer cells may be the next big
thing in the world of cancer biology. Exosomes, derived from cells and
blood serum of patients, have been shown to detect pancreatic cancer
and, possibly, breast cancer, and are also linked to increased cancer
progression and tumor growth.
A state of Texas program designed to expedite innovations in new cancer
treatments has helped MD Anderson recruit several new faculty members
during the past year.
MD Anderson’s expertise in cancer immunotherapy attracted the interest
of four major pharmaceutical companies, which signed three-year
collaborative agreements in early 2014 to develop new ways for the
immune system to destroy tumors.
The first experimental drug to be produced by MD Anderson’s drug
discovery and development institute will kill cancer cells in a new way
— by depriving them of the fuel necessary for growth and survival.
A protein beacon on the surface of runaway ovarian cancer cells guides
them to a sanctuary organ where they take hold and spread.
Marietta Cline is one busy woman. As a doctor with four children who
loves to travel and build custom furniture, she’s a go-getter with
little time to spare.
Mark Cripe, D.O., is a surgeon with the nonprofit OhioHealth network in
Columbus, Ohio. But attached to the lapel of his white coat is a pin
bearing the name of MD Anderson in Houston.
As a youngster growing up in São Paulo, Diogo Bugano Diniz Gomes was
fascinated by how things worked and how to fix them when they broke.
Since its introduction in the 1940s, the Pap test has been successfully
detecting abnormal cells in the cervix that, if left untreated, could
lead to cancer. In fact, that success has led to a 70% drop in cervical
cancer rates in the United States.
Jenny Dahl was within a semester of graduating with a nutrition degree
when an invitation changed her mind — and her future.
Wilderness doctor Matt Lewin, M.D., Ph.D., has traveled to the ends of
the Earth treating scientists who work in remote and dangerous locations.
The center that provides veterinary and preclinical research services to
support MD Anderson has received new, leading-edge laboratory equipment,
thanks to a $20,000 gift from Torchy’s Tacos in Austin.
Good things come in threes — like MD Anderson’s corporate alliances initiative.
More than 42% of adults in the United States were smokers back in 1964,
when the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health definitively
linked smoking to lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases.
Baby boomers — Americans born between 1945 and 1965 — grew up in one of
the wealthiest, most idealistic and physically fit generations in history.
Screening tests are powerful cancer prevention tools that can detect
pre-cancerous conditions early, sometimes before symptoms arise.
However, screening tests don’t exist for all types of cancer, and some
are advised only for people who have specific traits that increase their risk.
More than 3,500 local women who are low income and uninsured have
received free mammograms through an MD Anderson community outreach initiative.
It was 1980 when Janelle Hail of Frisco, Texas, discovered a small lump
during a self-breast exam. A visit to the doctor resulted in an early
breast cancer diagnosis. The then-34-year-old mother of three feared for
her life. Today, she attributes her survival to early detection.
Previous Issues
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Annual Report 2015
Research
Annual Report 2013
Open minds, new frontiers
Annual Report 2012
The time is now to educate
Annual Report 2011
From our president
Annual Report 2010
Many voices help tell the story
Annual Report 2009
From the President