Make a gift
Fred Hutch Cancer Center is an independent, nonprofit organization that also serves as the cancer program for UW Medicine. Our relationship allows for enhanced care coordination between a top-ranked cancer center and a leading integrated health system and accelerates the latest scientific breakthroughs in cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Fred Hutch is proud to raise funds that fuel the adult oncology program on behalf of both Fred Hutch and UW Medicine.
If you would like to send a check, please make it payable to “Fred Hutch Cancer Center” and write “MC3 Institute” in the memo line and send to:
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
1100 Fairview Ave N
Mail Stop J5-200
Seattle, WA 98109
If you would like to explore other ways to donate in support of our Merkel Cell Carcinoma program, or if you have any questions, please contact Megan Little, director of Philanthropic Gifts, at mlittle2@fredhutch.org or 206.667.5799.
We are building on our expertise and decades of discovery to strengthen our understanding of MCC so we can improve detection and treatment for people and families facing this disease. Here are a few of the ways our team is driving the next wave of treatments and cures:
Predicting Response to Treatment
Today, providers don’t know which of their patients with metastatic MCC will respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors, but our research could change that. Recently, we demonstrated that the level of cancer-fighting T cells circulating in a patient’s blood — not the level in their tumor — best predicts whether these therapies will be effective, a first step toward developing a test providers could use to guide treatment in the future. This finding could also be the foundation for new therapeutic strategies to boost patients’ existing anti-tumor T cells.
Creating Tailored Therapies
We’re proud that our research helped to dramatically improve the chances that patients with metastatic MCC will benefit from treatment, and now we’re aiming to increase those survival rate from 50% to 75%. To reach that goal, we are developing treatments that combine immune checkpoint inhibitors with other types of therapies, including T-cell therapies, in which patients’ own immune cells are reengineered to recognize telltale markers of disease.
Coordinating Multi-Site Research Studies
Because MCC is such a rare disease, no single cancer center has enough patients to conduct high-quality studies by itself. As coordinating center for some of the largest clinical trials in the U.S. — including the Women’s Health Initiative and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network — Fred Hutch has built unique expertise and infrastructure for successful multi-institution research. By leveraging and expanding our existing network of collaborators, we can continue to make an outsized contribution to research that yields new and better treatments for people living with MCC.
Ensuring Enduring Impact
Our new MC3 Institute is a hub that connects more than 100 collaborators at Fred Hutch, UW Medicine, and beyond, facilitating new ideas and streamlining data- and sample-sharing. The structure provides a durable administrative framework that will grow with our clinical care and translational research enterprise and support our ever-deepening training, outreach, and advocacy efforts now and in the future.
Thank you for your interest in supporting the fight against Merkel cell carcinoma.