National Foundation for Cancer Research receives Safeway Foundation grant

Aug 21 2018

The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) is one of 13 local and regional organizations to be the recipient of a grant by Safeway Foundation supporting cancer research and treatment efforts. The $35,000 award will be directed toward the expansion of the Cancer Patient Navigation Hotline, a communications resource offering guidance by trained oncology nurses--"navigators"--to patients and their families at no cost.

Launched by NFCR this spring in conjunction with HonorHealth Research Institute (HRI), the Hotline has been designed to allow patients to better understand diagnosis and treatment options, communicate more comfortably with their doctors, access important information associated with their prescribed plan of action and identify clinical trials in cases where no standard of care or effective therapy is currently available. The service aims to equip users with knowledge enabling better decisions about their cancer care.

The Hotline's navigators work closely with an elite multi-disciplinary team that includes HRI Chief Scientific Officer Daniel Von Hoff, M.D., a world-renowned oncologist, recipient of the 2016 Giant of Cancer Care Award by OncLive and longtime NFCR fellow.

This represents the National Foundation for Cancer Research's second such grant. A 2017 Safeway Foundation award was recently designated to NFCR Fellow Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. The funds from it have been used to help sustain Dr. Fisher's research on enhancing a promising immunotherapy being developed for metastatic prostate and other cancers. His and his laboratory's cutting edge technology has been shown to produce profound anti-cancer activity in slowing or halting metastatic--spreading--cancer, which is responsible for 90% of the lives lost to the disease.

"Our organization is honored to be recognized by Safeway Foundation for our work in not only researching innovative future new treatments of cancer, but now too in servicing those afflicted by it today," said NFCR Chief Strategy Officer Michael Wang, M.D., Ph.D., MBA.

Safeway Foundation, part of Albertsons Companies Foundation, supports causes in the fields of health and human services, hunger relief, education, veterans and helping people with disabilities. Cancer research is one of its primary health-related philanthropic initiatives, with a focus on funding organizations that increase participation in trials and access to preventative testing and promising new medicines. Safeway Foundation in Safeway's Eastern Division invested more than $1.4 million in neighborhoods in 2017.