Donor Stories: Entertainment Industry Foundation

Women's Cancer Research Fund Honorary chairs Kate Capshaw and Rita Wilson along with WCRF founders Marion Laurie, Anne Douglas, Kelly Meyer, Quinn Ezralow, and Jamie Tisch.

Entertainment Industry Foundation

Women's Cancer Research Fund

A generous three-year, $9 million award from the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) and its Women’s Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) enables the Hutchinson Center to combine efforts with a consortium of internationally recognized scientists on an intensive quest to pinpoint breast-cancer biomarkers — unique proteins in the blood that may signal the presence of cancer at its earliest stages, when survival rates are highest.

Under the scientific leadership of Dr. Lee Hartwell, the EIF/WCRF Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project brings together researchers in the fields of proteomics, informatics and clinical breast-cancer care to share research to speed the discovery of biomarkers that may lead to a blood test for early detection of breast cancer.

The EIF, the philanthropic arm of the entertainment industry, hopes that by funding the consortium it will improve breast-cancer survival rates and reduce the toll exacted by one of the most common and dreaded cancers in women.

EIF/WCRF Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project will work to isolate the proteins that herald early stage breast cancer when detected in blood serum. The resulting knowledge could change the emphasis of cancer care away from treatment of advanced disease and toward prevention of full-blown cancer in persons known to be susceptible or just starting to develop the disease.