Cancer Therapy and Research Center history

Massachusetts General Hospital's dedication to the treatment of cancer reaches back to 1925, when the hospital opened the nation’s first tumor clinic.

1939 Cancer is the leading cause of death in Hawaiʻi.

The first attempt at coordinating cancer at UCSF was a collaboration between the UC School of Medicine, the city and county of San Francisco and the National Cancer Institute in 1947 with the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology.

Following on the LEO's heels, the tradition of cancer-related research at UCSF owes much to the vision of David A. Wood, MD, who in 1948 was appointed as the first director of the UCSF Cancer Research Institute.

Nauts and her devoted friend Oliver R. Grace Sr., founded the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in 1953.

1959 Hawaiʻi becomes a state.

However, the establishment of the CRCH began much earlier in the 1960’s.

Arriving in Hawaiʻi in 1964, Doctor Piette’s Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) research focus on cancer soon led to establishing the Hawaiʻi Cancer Research Laboratory within the PBRC.

1970 UH then President Harlan Cleveland asks former health director, Doctor Richard K.C. Lee to head a planning committee to integrate the laboratory and demography programs.

The UH Cancer Center was founded in 1971 as part of the Pacific Biomedical Research Center.

1972 The CRCH receives federal funding for cancer research center planning grant.

1973 The Hawaiʻi Tumor Registry joins the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, & End Results (SEER) and the CRCH assumes its operation and management.

1978 The Cancer Information Line is established as part of the CRCH's Cancer Control Program.

The new cancer center facility officially opened in 1979 on Lauhala Street in downtown Honolulu, where a grand opening was held with lei and lectures featuring the internationally known Nobel Laureate Doctor Linus Pauling.

1981 UH Board of Regents establishes the CRCH as a free-standing organized research institute.

Nauts became the Institute’s founding executive director and served tirelessly in that role until 1982, when she became the Institute’s director of science and medical communications.

1983 The Cancer Information Line becomes the Cancer Information Service of Hawaiʻi (CIS-HI) through support from the NCI.

The Cancer Center was established in 1986, under the leadership of Kurt Isselbacher, MD, who founded the Center for Cancer Research – a 40,000 square foot research facility in Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard dedicated to study the basic mechanisms of cancer.

It started with an ambitious and, at the time, an unheard-of plan in 1993: to make cancer clinical trials accessible to the community without the support of an academic institution.

Meanwhile, in order to establish a more formal network of cancer immunology’s international talent base, the Institute initiated in 1994 its Annual International Cancer Immunotherapy Symposium.

In 1995, Bruce Chabner, MD, was recruited from the National Cancer Institute to become the Cancer Center’s clinical director.

In 1996, CRCH regained designation by the National Cancer Institute and received funding from a Cancer Center Support Grant.

Our dedicated team established the first Phase 1 program in the community setting in 1997, which has grown to become one of the largest programs of its kind in the world.

The Cancer Center achieved status in December 1999 as an NCI-designated "comprehensive cancer center," the highest of three designations.

2002 The Blue Ribbon Panel on Cancer Care in Hawaiʻi Final Report is submitted to Governor Benjamin Cayetano.

In 2003 Daniel Haber, MD, PhD, noted for his research on the genetics of human cancer, assumed the directorship of the Cancer Center.

Formally established as Sarah Cannon Research Institute in 2004, it brings together community-based physicians, researchers and clinicians that have conducted more than 600+ first-in-human trials and has been a clinical trial leader in the majority of approved cancer therapies in the last decade.

2006 The tobacco tax increase bill becomes law and the CRCH receives additional funds which support the building and operations of the new Cancer Research Center in Kakaʻako.

In late 2007, the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research merged with the Cancer Research Institute, combining its postdoctoral fellowship program with CRI's.

At the same time, the Center expanded its profile within the University in 2009 with the opening of a new laboratory research building at the UCSF/Mission Bay campus.

In 2012, Sarah Cannon became the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, to offer cutting-edge clinical research along with integrated cancer services from diagnosis through recovery.

In 2014, the Cancer Research Institute launched a new website devoted to patients and caregivers called TheAnswerToCancer.org.

In 2015 the Bakar Cancer Hospital, part of a 289-bed medical center complex, opened to patients.