Frances Williams Preston is joined by Drs. Jay Smith, Hal Moses and Harry Jacobson. (photo by Tommmy Lawson)
VICC celebrates exceeding goal
Cancer survivor Karen Stroup thanks the crowd for their work to raise money for cancer research. (photo by Dana Johnson)
Lincoln Rogers gives donors first-hand insight into how patients are affected by their diagnosis and treatment. (photo by Dana Johnson)
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center friends, supporters, faculty and staff last week celebrated the unprecedented success of the Campaign to Imagine a World Without Cancer, and set their sights even higher to support VICC’s strategy to help conquer cancer.
Orrin H. Ingram, chairman of the “Imagine” campaign, announced that the campaign had exceeded its goal of $150 million, reaching $160 million to date, and will now shoot for $175 million with aggressive fund-raising to continue for at least another year. The campaign was launched in 1999 with an initial goal of $100 million, which was surpassed in 2001.
“We could not have done this without the hard work of all the volunteers and staff who have worked so diligently on this campaign, including our Board of Overseers and the more than 40 members of our Campaign Committee,” said Ingram, President and CEO of Ingram Industries and chair of VICC’s board.
Ingram and Dr. Harold L. Moses, Benjamin F. Byrd Professor of Oncology and director of VICC, noted a number of significant accomplishments made possible by the campaign, which has involved more than 7,000 donors to date.
Among these achievements:
•Recruitment of nearly 70 basic scientists and clinicians.
•Designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.
•Award of two Specialized Programs of Research Excellence in gastrointestinal and lung cancer. An application for a third SPORE, in breast cancer, is pending with the National Cancer Institute, a grant for a SPORE in prostate cancer was submitted earlier this month, and plans are being developed to potentially submit SPORE grants in head and neck cancer, leukemia, melanoma, and brain cancer.
•Enhancement of Vanderbilt’s work in cancer epidemiology, research into causes of disease with an eye toward identifying techniques for prevention. This area includes launch of the historic Southern Community Cohort Study, which focuses on why black Americans are more likely to develop and die from cancer than are Caucasians. The campaign is working to fully fund this study, which received $22 million from the NCI, about $6 million short of projected needs.
•Completion of the Frances Williams Preston Building as the focal point for VICC’s activities.
•Leverage of private investment in pilot projects and other innovative work to help more than double VICC’s annual funding from NCI from $16 million when the campaign was launched to more than $40 million.
•Award of 17 endowed Ingram professorships and two new endowed chairs.
•Launch of a new approach to cancer care through the Pain and Symptom Management Program.
•Formation of a historic partnership between VICC and Meharry Medical College.
The goal of $150 million was based on the estimated cost to fully fund VICC’s 10-year strategic plan as written in 1998. The focus at that time was building “people and programs” in broad areas to build up core strength, Moses said.
Important advances have been made in cancer research that open up new opportunities for VICC, he said. “Because of these advances and because we’ve built up our strength, now we can re-focus the strategic plan to be more targeted,” Moses said. Among the new areas of focus will be molecular diagnostics and targeted therapy; pre-cancer detection and intervention; cell signaling and the interplay between the tumor and the cells around it, and validation of new treatment targets and design of smarter drugs.
In addition to supporting these new opportunities, the campaign is currently working to meet a “Science Initiative” challenge from The Kresge Foundation, which has given an initial $250,000 to support a shared resource in proteomics research. An additional $250,000 from The Kresge Foundation, plus an additional $250,000 from an anonymous donor, will be given for an endowment for continued operation of the facility — provided another $1 million is raised from other donors for that purpose.