Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance

About the Alliance

The Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance is working together to fight cancer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by pursuing world-class basic and clinical research to improve cancer prevention and advance the standard of cancer care available statewide.

 

This year, more than 75,000 Pennsylvanians will be diagnosed with cancer.

These patients and their families will face a challenging and uncertain future, and they will need help.

Fortunately, Pennsylvania is home to some of the nation's top cancer research and treatment institutions. To make the greatest difference to the greatest number of people, Pennsylvania's leading cancer organizations have pooled their intellectual resources to form the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance. Through collaborative basic research, clinical investigations, and prevention studies, Alliance members are working together on every front to fight cancer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The Alliance at Work

Learn more about successful research funded by the CURE program and measures of success.

The members of the Alliance
are Pennsylvania’s
leading cancer centers

Meet the Members

The National Cancer Institute estimates there are more than 10 million cancer survivors in the United States today, and that number is growing all the time. Under the common banner of the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance, a collective of the nation’s leading cancer centers is working together to ensure that Pennsylvanians have the best possible odds of beating cancer today and in the future. As one of only a handful of states to dedicate 100 percent of the funds from the national tobacco settlement to biomedical research and health care, Pennsylvania is today a national leader in the fight against cancer. With this and other support, the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance is pursuing leading-edge basic research, developing top-flight clinical tests and therapies, and initiating advanced prevention studies for the benefit of all Pensylvanians.

Alliance members are also among the most active academic institutions in the nation in terms of patenting and licensing their discoveries to the private sector for development into anti-cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. The biopharmaceutical firms that partner with Alliance members represent one of the most rapidly growing sectors of Pennsylvania’s emerging knowledge-based economy.

Pennsylvania boasts five National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers—all Alliance members—more than any other state except New York and California. Tobacco-settlement and other funds from the Commonwealth enable Alliance researchers to collaborate to obtain the critical research data required to win highly competitive federal grants.

Basic Insights into Cancer

Working Together to Fight Cancer in PennsylvaniaAlthough available diagnoses and treatments for cancer are better today than they ever have been, they still are not as effective and free from side effects as we would like them to be. The key to improving our ability to fight cancer lies in basic research into the fundamental biology of cancer. Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance scientists know that better insights from their laboratories will lead to better therapies.

The promise of basic research is especially compelling today because of the availability of the human genome sequence. Nowhere will the impact of this scientific advance be felt more keenly than in the fight against cancer, because cancer is a disease of faulty genes and the molecular events they control. Now, newly acquired genetic knowledge and powerful new laboratory technologies are combining to allow Alliance physicians and scientists to answer significant questions about cancer that they could not before.

Improved Diagnosis and Treatment

Working Together to Fight Cancer in PennsylvaniaConverting laboratory research into better methods of diagnosing and treating cancer in patients requires studies specifically designed to translate scientific progress into clinical reality. Translational studies under the guidance of Alliance physician-researchers are under way to advance our capabilities in every important aspect of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Studies of the relationship between the immune system and cancer are leading to the development of vaccines able to spark our bodies to attack tumors while sparing healthy cells and tissues. Laboratory-created antibodies can differentiate between cancer cells and normal ones and are being used in both diagnostic tests and innovative treatments. Next-generation chemotherapies, too, will be much better targeted and less toxic than current approaches. In these and other clinical areas, Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance member institutions are among the nation’s most active.

The Goal of Prevention

Working Together to Fight Cancer in PennsylvaniaA key focus of the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance is on the prevention of cancer. While improving the diagnosis and treatment of cancer is vital, learning to prevent the disease whenever possible stands as one of our most important goals. Critical investigations are under way at Alliance institutions to assess the roles of various dietary and lifestyle factors in cancer.

Lifestyle factors offer perhaps the greatest opportunity to improve the health of the citizens of the Commonwealth. According to the American Cancer Society, smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society, contributing significantly not only to cancer, the second leading cause of death in the United States, but also to heart disease, the leading cause of death. Alliance member institutions are pursuing community- based public health initiatives to ensure a significant decline in the use of tobacco products in Pennsylvania in coming years, especially among our younger citizens.