Share Hutch News

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center epidemiologist Dr. Holly Harris was just awarded two grants to study endometriosis, an often painful disorder in which the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus — the endometrium — grows outside the uterus. The condition impacts about 10 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age.

The first grant, issued by the National Institute of Nursing Research, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, spans four years and totals $1.4 million. It will allow Harris to conduct a 12-week dietary intervention among women with endometriosis in hopes of decreasing their pain and improving their quality of life.

“Over 80 percent of women with endometriosis report chronic pelvic pain, and symptoms are often not sufficiently abated with hormonal suppression or surgery,” Harris said. “The identification of other evidenced-based, modifiable factors that improve pain and quality of life are critical to improving the lives of women with endometriosis.”

Hope and fear.

Shortly after she was diagnosed with melanoma in January, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan found herself in a Seattle Cancer Care Alliance waiting room. She anxiously glanced around. Her fellow patients spanned all ages and spoke multiple languages, but they all had the same look in their eyes: a mixture of hope and fear.

On Wednesday, March 13, Durkan visited Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to learn about advancements that could help tip the scales toward hope.

“It’s so important to show the research underway into treatments and prevention, because they really do raise hope,” said Durkan, who lost her mother and oldest brother to cancer. “For me, one of the untold stories is the role Fred Hutch and other institutions in Seattle play in designing the treatments of the future. The level of discovery here is astonishing.”