Fox Chase Cancer Center

The Fox Chase Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center research facility and hospital located in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The main facilities of the center are located on property adjoining Burholme Park. The center is an independent, non-profit institution which specializes in the treatment and prevention of cancer.

The center was formed in 1974 by the merger of the American Oncologic Hospital, which was founded in 1904 as the first cancer hospital in the United States ^[1] , and the Institute for Cancer Research, founded in 1927.

Today it has almost 2,400 employees and an operating budget of $281.7 million for fiscal year 2006. Research is conducted in more than 80 laboratories by a staff of more than 325 physicians and scientists who hold medical degrees, Ph.D.s or both.

Fox Chase's 100-bed hospital is one of the few facilities in the country devoted entirely to cancer care. Annual hospital admissions average about 4,100 and outpatient visits to physicians exceed 69,000 a year. As of 2009, the Fox Chase Cancer Center was ranked as the fifteenth best cancer hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report^[2].

In 1995, Fox Chase also became a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of 21 of the nation’s leading academic cancer centers.

History of Research Advances at Fox Chase Cancer Center

A short history of notable achievements by Fox Chase researchers:

• 2005 Eileen Jaffe first ^[3] describes morpheeins ^[4], a previously-unknown class of proteins that can form two or more different forms, but must come apart and change shape to convert between forms.
• 2004 The Kyoto Prize in Basic Science is awarded to Alfred G. Knudson for life-time achievement and contributions to the betterment of mankind.
• 2004 The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Irwin Rose and his colleagues Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko for their discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.
• 1993 Beatrice Mintz produces the first mouse model of human malignant melanoma, in which the disease resembles the human malignancy.
• 1991 Philip Tsichlis, Alfonso Bellacosa, and Joseph Testa clone the Akt1 and Akt2 genes - the first viral oncogenes described that inhibit programmed cell death.
• 1991 Timothy Yen discovers that a molecular motor controls the way human cells sort their chromosomes when cells divide during mitosis.
• 1982 William Mason and Jesse Summers demonstrate that the hepatitis B virus utilizes reverse transcription for genome replication, previously thought to be unique to retroviruses.
• 1981 Beatrice Mintz's laboratory is one of the first to introduce a cloned gene into fertilized mouse eggs and prove that it is retained in animals developing from those eggs, and is transmitted to their progeny.
• 1980 Discovery of critical aspects of ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation by Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose.
• 1980 Alfred Knudson develops the "two-hit" theory, predicting the existence and behavior of tumor suppressor genes.
• 1980 Discovery of the SCID mouse, a mouse strain with no natural immunity, by Melvin Bosma. The SCID mouse is an essential research tool in devising new treatments.
• 1979 Beatrice Mintz shows that a fatal genetic anemia of mice can be prevented in utero by injecting normal blood-forming stem cells into the fetus through a placental blood vessel.
• 1976 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Baruch Blumberg for his discovery of the Hepatitis B virus and development of the HBV vaccine, the first "anti-cancer vaccine", which has reduced the incidence of liver cancer.
• 1975 The first transgenic mammals containing foreign DNA are produced by Beatrice Mintz and Rudolf Jaenisch.
• 1974 Discovery by Robert Perry that the messenger RNAs of mammalian cells and their precursors contain a novel structure at their leading ends.
• 1972 Helen Berman and Jenny Glusker report the crystal structure of a nucleic acid-drug complex as a model for anti-tumor agent and mutagen action.
• 1968 Development of the first Hepatitis B vaccine by Baruch Blumberg and Irving Millman.
• 1967 Discovery of the Hepatitis B virus and development of the blood test for Hepatitis B by Baruch Blumberg.
• 1962 The first demonstration, by Robert Perry, that ribosomal RNA is synthesized in the nucleolus as a large precursor molecule that is subsequently processed into mature components.
• 1962 Beatrice Mintz's development of the first mammal comprising two genetically different cell populations in all tissues, as a tool for analyses of embryonic development and disease in mouse models.
• 1960 Discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome, the first genetic abnormality associated with a human cancer, by David Hungerford of the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Peter Nowell of the University of Pennsylvania.
• 1952 First nuclear transplantation (or 'cloning') experiment is performed by Robert Briggs and Thomas King using eggs of the frog Rana pipiens.
• 1946 Mary Bennett identifies an essential nutrient later revealed to be Vitamin B12.

Notable Current and Former Fox Chase Cancer Center Researchers

• Baruch Blumberg, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for discovery of Hepatitis B and the Hepatitis B vaccine.
• V. Craig Jordan, "Father of Tamoxifen"
• Alfred G. Knudson, architect of the "two-hit hypothesis" (Knudson hypothesis) about the role of accumulated genetic errors in cancer development, awarded the Kyoto Prize in 2004 and the Albert Lasker Award in 1998.
• Beatrice Mintz, pioneering female cancer researcher, noted for many embryonic and genetic advances, and member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
• Irwin Rose, awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.
• James Sherley

References

1. ^ Kreeger, Karen (2004-02-04). "America’s First Cancer Center Celebrates Centennial". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/96/3/171. Retrieved 2008-03-06. 
2. ^ "Best Hospitals 2009 Specialty Search: Cancer". U.S News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/directories/hospitals/index_html/specialty+IHQCANC/. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
3. ^ http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55114/
4. ^ Jaffe, E. K. (2005). "Morpheeins - a new structural paradigm for allosteric regulation." Trends Biochem. Sci. 30(9): 490-497.

External links

Philadelphia portal

• Official website

Coordinates: 40°04′19″N 75°05′25″W / 40.071848°N 75.090206°W / 40.071848; -75.090206