Prostate cancer strikes 1 in 6 men annually. It kills more than 28,000 men each year, making it second only to lung cancer as a leading cause of cancer deaths in men. Each June, we partner with the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), the world’s largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research, to raise funds for research at leading cancer centers across North America.
Since we began our prostate cancer fundraising campaign seven years ago, we have raised $41.8 million, including $13.2 million in 2008, making The Safeway Foundation one of the largest corporate fund raisers for prostate cancer research. An initial $3 million grant funded the Special Team Amplification of Research program (S.T.A.R.), which brings together an interdisciplinary team of investigators from multiple prominent cancer centers. The team consists of investigators from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan Cancer Center and the University of British Columbia. The S.T.A.R. team is working to find the most effective method of delivering heat directly to cancer cells. This cutting-edge theory suggests that cancer cells spreading outside the testes may be altered by the higher body temperatures, making them more susceptible to standard chemotherapy treatments than other cancer types. To do so, some of the S.T.A.R. program researchers are exploring the use of nanoparticles that are attracted to specific proteins carried by cancer cells.
Over the past seven years, The Safeway Foundation has raised nearly $60 million – including more than $18 million in 2008 alone – for medical research to improve detection and treatment of breast cancer. The funds we raised in 2008 were distributed to more than a dozen of the leading cancer centers in North America, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the Revlon Women’s Cancer Research Program at UCLA.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women ages 40-55.
• Mammography can detect breast abnormalities often two years before they can be felt in a physical exam.
• Screening mammograms can improve the survival rate even more, yet in the U.S., 25% of women 40 years and over have never had one.
If breast cancer is detected early, the five-year survival rate is excellent. Thanks to the generosity of customers and employees, Safeway is funding a small fleet of mobile screening units in a number of markets including Northern California, Washington state, Texas, Nevada and Alaska, to make these screening tests more accessible and affordable to more women in the states where Safeway operates, and in underserved areas where women may not have immediate access to screenings.
