Dive Brief:
- MIT, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago and The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are among the six recipients of a $540 million cancer research gift from Ludwig Cancer Research in New York City.
- Each of the six cancer centers, which also includes Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, will focus on a different area of cancer research with their portion of the gift — one of the largest cancer research donations on record.
- Ludwig Cancer Research also initially founded the cancer research centers at each of the six insitutions involved.
Dive Insight:
The centers will be split between studying how cancer spreads and how to prevent it in the first place. Due to sequestration, cancer research funding fell almost $300 million last year after remaining fairly flat since 2005, but money from private donors like Ludwig isn't subject to the same restrictions. As one hopeful patient with metastatic breast cancer said of the donations, "This is like winning the research lottery."
That's true for both the patients and institutions who will hopefully benefit from the findings this award will fund.