Earlier this year, Swedish announced
that the late philanthropist Paul Allen
was continuing his legacy with a $20
million personal endowment. The gift,
made shortly after his death in 2018,
supports the formation of the Paul G Allen
Research Center at the Swedish Cancer
Institute here to talk about what this
means for understanding and treating
cancer is Doctor Sarah Jo Greth line.
Thank you for being with us.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's good to see you again.
I would like to know what does
this endowment mean for cancer
patients and their families.
This research happening now.
Well, before anything,
I just want to say thank you to the
Paul G Allen family and his legacy,
'cause it's really given us an
amazing opportunity to change
the future for patients and their
families in fighting cancer.
This gift has allowed us to create a
new center with new core capabilities to
push the envelope and change the future.
So we are quite grateful. We
are all grateful because cancer
is a constantly evolving thing
that we need to keep fighting so.
Swedish is tackling this complex problem.
What kind of research is being done?
Well, I think the word complex
is really important here.
Cancer isn't one disease,
it's hundreds of different diseases,
and so we've really organized
our work at the Paul G Allen
Research Center into three pillars.
The first is really deepening our
understanding of the biology of tumors.
We know that at a genetic or
molecular level there are changes
that occur that make a good cell
turn bad and become a malignancy,
and so we're spending a lot
of time focusing on how that.
Impacts the patient and their journey
with a cancer that will help us develop
innovative treatments because it will
identify new targets for therapy.
One of the biggest thrusts that we're
looking at is the use of the patient's
own immune system to fight their cancer,
and so that's the second pillar of our work.
And the third is that we'd love
to put ourselves out of business.
We would love to prevent cancers
or find them at such an early
stage that they can be cured.
With a minimal impact on
the patients ongoing life,
so those are the three thrusts
deepening our understanding.
Creating and testing new and
innovative therapies and then
preventing cancers in the first place.
Wow, I mean it sounds like you really.
I mean with. With understanding.
We can also talk about prevention,
which is the other key aspect of it.
But how does the work and
the mission of Swedish is?
Just the mission that Swedish has.
I know as an organization worked
towards innovation at the center.
Well, first I'll say that Swedish's
mission is to serve our entire community,
and there are subsets of our population
that have not traditionally been
represented in Cancer Research,
and so another element of our work
here is trying to be inclusive and
make sure that diverse populations
participate in clinical trials.
And since the research the the
answers that come from research
are how we decide how to treat.
Cancers in the future if we
don't have diverse populations
in our research at the start,
how do we know that they will be well
served by the answers we come up with?
So this grant this gift is allowing
us to really push efforts to be
more inclusive in our research
and to be more innovative.
That is key with so many disparities,
I should mention to everyone
that you know Swedish is a
not for profit health system.
So with Phillip philanthropic donations,
how does that go to support?
The research done there.
Great question. We rely very heavily
on philanthropy and generous donors
to help us advance the mission.
You can imagine that all of Healthcare's
in financial straits following the
COVID pandemic and all the other
challenges that we're dealing with.
And having this money targeted
towards research allows us to do
things that may not have a great
return on investment right now that
we have to put seed money into that,
we have to explore and sometimes
bear to get things wrong.
On the way to getting things right, yeah.
And having money from philanthropy allows
us to do that free of the constraints
of the business model of medical care.
It it doesn't mean that we're Willy nilly.
We are incredibly committed to
being great stewards of this.
This research,
and so we have a quite complex
oversight structure to make sure
all the funds that we receive
are spent well in the pursuit of
important scientific advances.
My goodness, Dr. Graveline,
thank you so much for taking
the time to talk with us.
Sharing your knowledge on all these issues.
And helping us understand better what
our part can do to help fight cancer.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for having me
alright so you can learn more and
consider donating by going to the
website right there on your screen.
So much incredible work being done to
unlocking the secrets in fighting cancer.
We can do it all right.
And Speaking of Swedish,
did you know our friends over?
There are longtime sponsors
of home team Harvest.
Now this is a fundraiser led by
King five every year where we step
up to support Northwest harvest.
Our goal this year is to raise 21
million meals by December 31st.
As of right now,
we are little more than halfway.
There are several ways you can
help by donating to the website
you see on your screen are texting
the word home team to 41444,
or just donating money at your
local Safeway or Albertsons.
They have plenty of signs
there to remind you,
and that's a super easy way of doing it.
Alright, well coming up.
VRBO is out with its annual
list of trending destinations
for travel and up next.
See where you might consider visiting
in the New Year will be right back.
This portion of New Day Northwest
is sponsored by Swedish.