From Breakthroughs to Bedside

A new model for accelerating cancer innovation nationwide

By Peter Yu, MD
Physician-in-Chief
Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

For the patient receiving a cancer diagnosis, it gets personal fast. Statistics
measure improvement in cancer survival across the U.S., but we cure patients one
at a time. Nevertheless, those cures add up and the steadily increasing number of
patients living five years or longer, a surrogate for cure, are a measure of that
progress.

This month, the American Cancer Society released a milestone report, noting that
for the first time, seven out of 10 people with cancer in the United States will
survive five years after their diagnosis. This marks an increase from 50% in the
mid-1970s and 63% in the mid-1990s. Indeed, the 70% rate may be even higher,
since it is based on data from 2015 to 2021, and advances in cancer care are
occurring at an ever-faster pace. Overall cancer deaths are on track to decline by
up to 2% each year for the next decade.

The probability that many of these five-year cancer survivors are cured is very high
and for those that are alive but still in need of treatments, cancer has become a
chronic disease awaiting further breakthroughs from innovations like
immunotherapies and precision medicine guided by genomic sequencing.

Accelerating these advancements in oncology will require the world’s best minds
working together. This is why dynamic partnerships — like Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center’s (MSK) first-in-the-nation collaboration with Hartford HealthCare —
have never been more essential. After 10 years of working together with MSK, the
Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute has become the first healthcare system in the
U.S. to be designated as a MSK Care Partner.

By having our doctors, nurses and the whole medical team work in close
partnership with their MSK counterparts, we will be able to speed the transfer and
dissemination of knowledge about cancer breakthroughs.

Our strategic partnership will also enable more clinical trials to be available to our
patients, further speeding advances in cancer to every patient — whether they live
in Hartford or Bridgeport, suburban Manchester and Fairfield, or rural eastern and
northwestern Connecticut.

Together, we will explore emerging technologies in healthcare and telemedicine that
can provide a vastly better experience for cancer patients and their loved ones.
Being a MSK Care Partner brings hope through innovation, as we advance more
targeted therapies to treat the molecular abnormalities that drive each patient’s
cancer — enabling more effective treatments while advancing long-term survival
and improving quality of life.

I have been privileged to have a front-row seat at this amazing transformation in
cancer care. In 2014 and 2015, as President of the American Society of Clinical
Oncology, I was intrigued by MSK’s bold vision to unite their world-class research
and treatment expertise with Hartford HealthCare’s nimble, community-based care.
A little over a decade later, we are proud to deliver on this promise of more
personalized treatment, improved access and comprehensive support for patients
and their families.

The cure for cancer is happening — one discovery, one partnership, one patient at a
time.