Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center unites innovative research and compassionate care to prevent and eliminate cancer and infectious disease. We’re driven by the urgency of our patients, the hope of our community and our passion for discovery to pursue scientific breakthroughs and healthier lives for every person in every community.

This is a significant moment for breakthroughs in cancer and infectious disease treatment, care, and cures. Fred Hutch is harnessing this momentum to improve and save lives. Our strategy includes:

Leading in scientific discovery: We will continue to deliver breakthrough research on fundamental science by expanding and diversifying our faculty and researchers; driving forward new understandings about the relationship between cancers, the bodies in which they arise, and the pathogens (such as viruses and bacteria) that may be responsible for as much as one-third of all human cancers. We are also harnessing the power of large data sets to drive scientific discoveries and innovation.

Promoting science that drives clinical innovation: Fred Hutch is working at the forefront of precision oncology, which looks at a person’s individual cancer, and at their unique health and history, to create customized cancer treatments and risk-reduction strategies. We are also advancing new innovations in vaccine development and infectious diseases and digging deeply into how cancer begins — and how it can be prevented.
Developing and testing innovative immunotherapy and cellular therapies. Our scientists are working to develop new cellular, antibody, and combinatorial therapies for cancer and move them to patients as quickly as possible through “bench-to-bedside” research and clinical trials. We are also working to better understand advanced disease and develop better treatments for patients.

Delivering compassionate clinical care and better outcomes for people diagnosed with cancer: Fred Hutch provides best-in-class treatments and care. We are expanding on this excellence to continue to attract and serve patients not just in our region, but around our country and world.

Advancing organizational excellence: We will continue to provide world-class research and excellence in clinical infrastructure and operations. An important part of this work is our commitment to placing diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of all we do.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center unites comprehensive care and advanced research to provide the latest cancer treatment options and accelerate discoveries that prevent, treat, and defeat cancer and infectious diseases worldwide. Fred Hutch is home to five scientific divisions, eight clinical care sites, and more than 5,700 staff. Our 16-acre Seattle campus includes state-of-the-art laboratories, clinical care facilities, and core facilities that provide services and access to specialized equipment available to all faculty. Our clinical program serves more than 50,000 patients annually and has been recognized as the top cancer hospital in Washington for 15 years by U.S. News & World Report. We also provide wide-ranging education and training programs to develop scientists at all academic levels, from early high school through early career.

Fred Hutch is an independent, nonprofit organization that also serves as the cancer program for UW Medicine. This relationship allows for enhanced care coordination with one of the world’s leading integrated health systems. We are also part of the Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium. Formed in 2002, the Consortium is recognized as an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center — the only one in Washington. And from Uganda to South Africa to China and beyond, we’re collaborating with research partners to develop new ways to diagnose, predict, prevent and treat cancer around the world.

Fred Hutch has earned a global reputation for discoveries in cancer, infectious disease and basic research, including important advances in bone marrow transplantation, HIV/AIDS prevention, immunotherapy and COVID-19 vaccines. Our more than 245 faculty study more than 40 diseases, and our teams have conducted research in over 70 countries. Our roster of internationally acclaimed scientists includes three Nobel laureates, two MacArthur Fellows, and more than a dozen members of the National Academy of Sciences.
In all our work, we are guided by our values of collaboration, compassion, determination, excellence, innovation, integrity and respect. These are grounded in and expressed through the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Fred Hutch is proud to consistently be among the top recipients of research funding from the National Institutes of Health. We also grow and diversify funding from industry partners and work with government agencies, leaders, and policymakers to maintain and grow support for research. This includes accelerating our commercialization impact by increasing the speed and scale with which we bring our specialized knowledge and technology to commercial markets.

In addition, we rely on strong support from a global community of more than 31,000 individual donors. Their support allows us to do all we can, as quickly as we can, to improve and save lives.

Fred Hutch has been advancing prevention, diagnosis, treatments, care, and cures for cancer and infectious diseases for nearly 50 years. Our track record includes advances in bone marrow transplantation, HIV/AIDS prevention, immunotherapy, and COVID-19 vaccines.

Our work in bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation in the 1970s opened new doors for treatment and offered the first proof the immune system can be harnessed to attack cancer. Today, more than 1.5 million potentially lifesaving bone marrow transplants have been performed worldwide, and Fred Hutch continues to harness the power of the immune system through a world-leading immunotherapy program. Fred Hutch researchers also established the groundwork for the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer.

We are the global home for the HIV Vaccine Trails Network, the largest publicly funded international collaboration conducting clinical trials of HIV vaccines. Our Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic, opened in 2016, is a first-of-its-kind resource that has more than doubled our capacity to serve patients with leukemias and other cancers.

Since the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fred Hutch experts have drawn on extensive experience with HIV, as well as the impact of infectious diseases on cancer patients, to track, study, and monitor the virus. We also coordinated the large-scale trials that brought vaccines to millions in record time.

What’s next: In 2022, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance merged to form Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, an independent organization that also serves as UW Medicine’s cancer program. This unified structure is bringing research and care closer together and holds significant promise for people diagnosed with cancer and for the future of cancer research. Our priorities include:

* Immunotherapy: Discovering cures for solid tumors by building upon our research in immunotherapies for blood cancers.
* Precision oncology: Making personalized treatments and cures available to everyone diagnosed with cancer through new technologies that identify new targets for therapy.
* Viruses and vaccines: Advancing the detection, prevention, and treatment of HIV, COVID-19, HSV, Epstein-Barr virus, and other viruses, and developing preventive and curative vaccines for cancer and other diseases.
* Data science: Uncovering better treatments through data-driven approaches, such as machine learning and deep analysis of data sets, while harnessing the technological prowess the Pacific Northwest is known for.
* Prevention and early detection: Pinpointing individuals at greatest risk for cancer; finding ways to intervene and prevent it; and, when that is not possible, detecting cancer at an early stage.
* Health disparities: Increasing prevention, screening, early diagnosis, and care in communities disproportionately affected by cancer; enhancing the diversity of our faculty; and ensuring better representation in clinical trials.