Fred Hutch

04/26/2026

Living with cancer as a chronic condition isn't the same as thriving after cancer. Dr. Stanley Riddell, a world leader in cancer immunotherapy, envisions a future where highly individualized, precision-based treatments reduce — or even eliminate — the need for cancer to remain a lifelong disease.

Tap the link in the comments to listen to his conversation with Dr. Petros Grivas on the latest episode of the Oncology Insights Podcast.

04/25/2026

Dr. Lauren Shih’s career and research interests were profoundly shaped by a personal experience: her grandmother’s lung cancer diagnosis during her medical fellowship.

04/24/2026

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. It killed nearly 52,000 Americans last year, many within a year of diagnosis. Now, new data from two drugs showed it might be possible to keep the disease in check for longer than ever before.

“This is going to be a paradigm-shifting outcome,” said Dr. Andrew Coveler, director of the Pancreatic Cancer Specialty Clinic at Fred Hutch, who wasn’t involved the studies. “In 15 years, this is probably the first real big change or anticipated change in pancreas cancer.”

Read more:

Results from two early-stage trials offer new hope for a cancer that kills around seven in eight patients within five years.

04/23/2026

Since childhood, Tasia Baldwin knew she wanted to help heal people. Her work as a Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit Community Advisory Board member allows her to bring healing to many people — now and in years to come. The SVTU is a Fred Hutch Cancer Center-based program that focuses on preventive and observational HIV studies. Since 2016, Baldwin has helped people in her communities learn about these efforts and how they can get involved in work aimed at ending the HIV epidemic.

“One of the things I love most about the CAB is that a lot of the work we do is building relationships,” Baldwin said. “We build relationships with community-based organizations and other people out in the community as well.”

Many of the people most affected by HIV are in communities closest to Baldwin’s heart. As a CAB member, she works to make sure that people know about the latest in HIV vaccine and prevention research, as well as how they can participate in studies that will help people around the world.

04/23/2026

That's a wrap on !

Researchers from Fred Hutch and the University of Washington were in San Diego at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, sharing the latest findings in cancer prevention, diagnosis and care — from new insights on colorectal cancer risk to emerging targets for ovarian cancer and more.

Here are a few moments from this year's meeting. 📸

04/22/2026

People often think of the immune system as something that is either weak or strong, like a muscle in our body, but it’s actually a complex system. We can support our immune system by giving it the nutrients it needs to help fight invaders.

Check out these tips on how we can support our immune system through a well-balanced diet. 🍎 🫘🍳

04/22/2026

We are pleased to announce that the Fred Hutch Genetics Lab Stewardship Service team has been named PLUGS (Patient-centered Laboratory Utilization Guidance Services) Member of the Year! This award recognizes exceptional contributions to collaboration and leadership in lab test stewardship efforts locally and nationally.

Join us in congratulating the team for this for this well-deserved recognition!

04/21/2026

"This was the research that saved my life — and the lives of millions of others."

Laura Landro, a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, tells the story of bone marrow transplantation’s evolution into a lifesaving therapy, drawing from her own experience as a patient treated at Fred Hutch more than 30 years ago.

Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4sGTDlt

The research on bone-marrow transplantation mirrors the arc of many medical advancements. I was one of the early beneficiaries.

04/21/2026

On May 5, GiveBIG will bring people across Washington together to invest in the causes they care about most. But you don’t have to wait to make an impact. At Fred Hutch Cancer Center, your GiveBIG donation today could be doubled, up to $200,000, thanks to a generous match. Your support will fuel bold ideas that are transforming how we prevent, detect, and treat cancer and infectious disease.

With science moving faster than ever before, breakthroughs once unimaginable are now within reach. GiveBIG today and help accelerate discovery when it matters most. https://bit.ly/41uOLVx

04/21/2026

For longtime Fred Hutch volunteers Karen Leslie and David Hopkins, no two days are alike. Some days, they spend their volunteer shift at the Gift Shop at the Sloan Clinic. On other days, they support projects with the philanthropy team.

The couple, married for 42 years, began volunteering with Fred Hutch in 1994. Leslie, who was in remission for breast cancer, received a call from Fred Hutch to participate in a research study. Following the study, she called back about volunteering. The volunteer orientation happened to be the next week.

In the decades the couple has spent at Fred Hutch, they’ve tried just about everything the volunteer program has to offer. And with that they have engaged with everyone from out-of-town patients and people walking through the door of the Gift Shop as well as the Philanthropy and Patient and Family Services departments.

“Hopefully we’ve helped some people going through a difficult time and let them know there are people in Seattle that care about them," said Leslie.

04/17/2026

Immunotherapy is changing cancer care — but there’s still more work to do.

Immunotherapy has joined surgery, radiation and chemotherapy as a major pillar of cancer treatment. For some patients, it can even provide lifelong protection against a cancer returning.

These treatments work by helping the immune system “see” cancer cells again — using tools like CAR T cells, immune checkpoint inhibitors and antibody-based therapies. In certain cancers, including melanoma, they’ve led to powerful, life-changing responses.

But here’s the reality: most patients don’t benefit yet.

Even in cancers considered “responsive,” only about 30% of patients see lasting results. For people with pancreatic, uterine, germ cell and many other cancers, immunotherapy often hasn’t made a difference at all.

“Our immune system is designed to protect us from cancer,” says Dr. Kevin Barry, a molecular biologist at Fred Hutch. "But the immune system can be overrun by cancer. Only around 30% of patients respond to this type of treatment ... we have work to do.”

Thanks to a $270,000 grant from the American Cancer Society, Dr. Barry is taking on that challenge. His team will study how the tumor’s immediate environment helps cancer hide from the immune system — and how we might break that protection to help more patients respond to treatment.

Click the link in the comments to learn more.

04/16/2026

⏰ A 4 a.m. wake-up call with a global impact. 🌍🦠

Last fall, a Fred Hutch Cancer Center grad student logged onto a 4 a.m. video call with the World Health Organization.

Caroline Kikawa, a University of Washington MD‑PhD student working with Fred Hutch scientist Jesse Bloom, PhD, was there to discuss a new blood‑testing method that could make seasonal flu vaccines more effective.

There was just one catch.

“I didn’t have the data yet,” Kikawa said.

Still, she told the WHO scientists: Give me a month.

She delivered — and then some.

✅ 25,000+ antibody measurements�
✅ Largest dataset of its kind ever created�
✅ Completed in under six months — mostly solo�
✅ Immediately shared publicly

The results? Published in Virus Evolution and recognized with a Beyond the Journal Award for exemplary data sharing.

Even bigger: her data helped shape global flu vaccine recommendations — from Cape Town to Sydney to Buenos Aires — and will inform the vaccine used across Seattle and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere later this year.

🦠 Tap the link in the comments to read more.