Fred Hutch

02/24/2026

Fiber plays a huge role in cancer risk reduction. What are your favorite ways to incorporate fiber in your diet? Let us know in the comments below 🍎 🥦 🥭

02/23/2026

Great event last week with our partners the Boston Museum of Science and the Raw Science Film Festival for the Lee & Nile Albright Annual Symposium and screening of our documentary The End of HIV: The Journey to a Vaccine, held in the iconic Mugar Omni Theater.

We were honored to welcome special guests Dr. Anthony Fauci as well Dr. Larry Corey for an inspiring evening of conversation, connection, and shared commitment to ending HIV.

02/23/2026

Fred Hutch Cancer Center scientists are working toward a drinkable foam that may one day help patients with esophageal cancer maintain their quality of life. Still in preclinical tests, the foam has been designed to concentrate a cancer-killing gene therapy at tumors that narrow the esophagus and restrict swallowing and eating.

The work was published in Gene Therapy. The goal is to open the esophagus “and make sure the patient can keep eating or keep swallowing and — most important — also avoid a feeding tube as long as possible,” said Fred Hutch bioengineer Dr. Matthias Stephan, who is leading the drinkable foam development.

Esophageal cancer is usually detected at a late, hard-to-treat stage. If successful, Stephan’s foam could be used to reduce doses of radiation therapy or delay a high-risk surgery.

The drinkable foam is one potential use for an easy-to-use foam Stephan and his team have created to make it easier, faster and cheaper to deliver various cancer treatments and gene therapies. The idea is to design “something that could easily be applied, where essentially you could do it at home if you wanted to,” Stephan said.

He and his team mixed their biodegradable, cellulose-based foam with RNA liposomes that can be absorbed by cells, which then use the RNA as a blueprint for making an FDA-approved cell-killing compound. The idea is that the foam will collect at the tumor, which will absorb the seeds of its own demise. The foam-RNA mixture is non-toxic and any foam that slips past the esophagus-clogging tumor will degrade in the stomach.

To test their foam, Stephan’s team built a lab-based esophagus model, complete with regular pumps of a commercially available saliva-like solution to mimic swallowing. When they tested the foam against esophageal cancer tissue, they found that foam-suspended, toxin-encoding RNA liposomes suspended were 110% more effective than the same liposomes mixed with liquid. In preclinical tests, the foam also amped up the effects of radiation therapy.

02/23/2026

Most people don’t think much about the state of their local blood supply, but it’s often top of mind for people who have cancer. An ongoing shortage of donated blood is prompting blood donation organizations to put out the call for blood donors.

"The person most likely to become a regular blood donor is someone who has had a loved one need blood as part of their care," said Sandhya Panch, MD, MPH, medical director of transfusion at Fred Hutch Cancer Center and an associate professor of hematology at University of Washington School of Medicine.

In this conversation with Panch, we take a look at how blood supply shortages affect people with cancer, the different types of blood donations and how you can help. Visit the link in comments to read more.

02/22/2026

We're excited to invite patients, caregivers, and advocates to the Rare Cancers Patient & Caregivers Education Symposium.

📅 Date: Saturday, March 14th, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:00AM – 1:30PM
📍 Location: Fred Hutch Cancer Center

This free symposium is designed to empower rare cancer patients and their caregivers through education on:

- What makes a cancer "rare" and why it matters
- Navigating diagnosis, treatment, and clinical trials
- Understanding tissue donation and lab research
- Emotional and practical realities of living with rare cancers
- Patient-driven progress and advocacy

Visit the link in comments to register.

02/21/2026

Dietary supplements are wildly popular, but large clinical trials and other research by Fred Hutch Cancer Center scientists show that many common dietary supplements offer little proven benefit for cancer prevention, and in some cases may even increase cancer risk.

Initially created to treat nutritional deficiencies, dietary supplements are now sold as a panacea for nearly all ills ― including cancer ― and unlike drugs used to treat disease, they face few regulatory hurdles. There’s no rigorous vetting process to get U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval; supplements have no FDA approval process. The FDA only gets involved if they’re shown to be unsafe, misbranded or adulterated once they’re on the market.

Yet in 2025 alone, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $60 billion (or more) on dietary and over-the-counter supplements, their popularity fueled by an aging population and a burgeoning wellness industry replete with charismatic online influencers.

Who wouldn’t want to simply take a “magic pill” to boost a flagging immune system, sharpen a foggy mind and/or protect them from ― or even eliminate ― cancer?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. That’s why in addition to researching and developing cures for cancer, Fred Hutch scientists have drilled down into a slew of supplements to see whether they offer any protection against disease. Their data point to a consistent theme: supplements have not been shown to prevent cancer and, in some cases, may actually increase cancer risk.

What’s more, some supplements can interfere with cancer treatments, something not all patients realize. Many people assume they’re harmless, even beneficial, and don’t think to tell their doctors.

Curious about the benefits (and potential harms) of dietary and other over-the-counter supplements? Tap the link in comments to read their findings.

02/20/2026

If a prostate cancer cell were a car, the androgen receptor (AR) would be part of its ignition system, enabling cancer cells to respond to hormonal signals that drive growth.

For decades, therapies for advanced prostate cancer have focused on blocking this pathway, essentially trying to stop tumor growth by cutting off the hormonal fuel that AR signaling depends on.

But the most aggressive cancers often find ways around these treatments, restoring AR signaling through alternative mechanisms and making the disease much harder to control.

A better understanding of how prostate cancer maintains AR signaling, and what proteins help support it, could reveal new therapeutic vulnerabilities.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Genetics, Haolong Li, PhD, a researcher at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and colleagues developed a way to monitor AR levels inside living tumor cells, and then used that tool to systematically identify genes that prostate cancer cells depend on to maintain AR levels.

Their work revealed an unexpected regulator: PTGES3, a relatively understudied protein that turns out to be essential for AR-driven prostate cancer survival, including in therapy-resistant disease.

The method also provides a new way to study other hormone-driven cancers, including breast cancer, which rely on similar signaling systems.

Tap the link in comments to read more.

02/20/2026

Deciding to quit to***co is an important first step towards better health. But quitting for good can be hard without support.

Our experienced to***co cessation (quitting) specialists first listen to understand the unique challenges you face when it comes to quitting. Then, we work with you to find the right combination of support and resources you need to achieve your goal.

Learn more about Fred Hutch's Living Tobacco-Free Services via the link in our bio.

***cofree

02/18/2026

Fred Hutch Cancer Center scientists reached a crucial milestone in blocking Epstein Barr virus (EBV), a pathogen estimated to infect 95% of the global population that is linked to multiple types of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and other chronic health conditions.

Using preclinical models with human antibody genes, the research team developed new genetically human monoclonal antibodies that prevent two key antigens on the surface of the virus from binding to and entering human immune cells. Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the study highlights one of the newly identified monoclonal antibodies that successfully blocked infection in mice with human immune systems when they were challenged with EBV.

“Finding human antibodies that block Epstein Barr virus from infecting our immune cells has been particularly challenging because, unlike other viruses, EBV finds a way to bind to nearly every one of our B cells,” explained Andrew McGuire, PhD, a biochemist and cellular biologist in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutch. “We decided to use new technologies to try to fill this knowledge gap and we ended up taking a critical step toward blocking one of the world’s most common viruses.”

02/18/2026

Fred Hutch Cancer Center traces its roots to the pioneering team that first made bone marrow transplantation a reality. Since the late-1960s breakthroughs demonstrating that this Nobel Prize–winning treatment could save the lives of people with blood cancers and other blood disorders, Fred Hutch researchers have continued working to make bone marrow transplantation safer and more effective for patients.

Now, more than 1.5 million transplants have been performed worldwide. The field’s successes mean that today’s transplant experts are working in a very different landscape than even 10 or 15 years ago, said Fred Hutch’s Director of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Dr. Geoffrey Hill.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw someone with bad gut graft-vs.-host disease,” said Hill, who also directs Fred Hutch’s Translational Science and Therapeutics Division and holds the Leonard and Norma Klorfine Endowed Chair for Clinical Research. “We still see chronic GVHD, but we don’t see that penetrance of severe disease and people dying of GVHD.”

GVHD, or graft-vs.-host disease, is a transplant complication in which donor immune cells called T cells attack host tissue. It can range from mild and temporary to life-threatening and chronic — but the deadly, debilitating cases are rare now.

This progress is especially meaningful as the community marks GVHD Day, a moment to raise awareness of the condition and recognize the scientific advances that continue to improve patients’ lives.

02/17/2026

Fred Hutch President and Director Dr. Tom Lynch has always been guided by one thing: caring for patients. On the Oncology Insights Podcast, he talks with Dr. Petros Grivas about his path in oncology and the power of patient care, clinical trials and philanthropy.

02/17/2026

Outstanding! Thanks to Base 2 Space for their ongoing support! 💙

2025 Base 2 Space climbers... YOU did that. 👏 Together, you raised $1.16 million for , supporting the care and research that helps prevent, treat, and cure cancer and infectious diseases worldwide. Congratulations on an incredible year! 💙