Annual Report 2007 - Gift Boosts
Women's Cancer Care
Annual Report 2007 - Gift Boosts
Gift Boosts Women's Cancer Care
A $250,000 donation from Gary S. Gladstein ’66 through the Marsha Lilien Gladstein Foundation is providing strategic support for the new Women’s Cancer Prevention and Treatment Program at the UConn Health Center’s Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The gift, which will support the recruitment of top-flight doctors as well as critical cancer research, is in memory of Gladstein’s wife, Judi, in gratitude for the treatment she received at the Health Center and caring guidance from Carolyn Runowicz, M.D., director of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Dr. Runowicz’s knowledge, guidance, caring and availability enormously helped Judi and me in handling Judi’s horrendous illness. Dr. Runowicz assembled a great team of doctors in different fields and regularly communicated with them. We knew we were in good hands,” says Gladstein, a member of the Board of Directors of the UConn Foundation.
Innovative research, development and clinical care through the program will lead to improved prevention, detection and treatment of women’s cancers. Women will receive individualized care from a multidisciplinary team including gynecologic and breast oncologists, genetic counselors, nutritionists and other specialists.
“This program will enhance the health care for women in Connecticut and the surrounding region,” says Runowicz.
Following the example set by the Colon Cancer Prevention Program, which opened in 2005, the new women’s program will serve as a national model for prevention and translating research from the bench to the bedside.
“The goal of the program will be to incorporate the newest molecular approaches and individualized risk assessment and prevention strategies to women at risk for cancer, which will place UConn in the highest tier of women’s cancer prevention,” says Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology Molly Brewer, M.D. (pictured), a nationally recognized oncologist who was recruited to create the program.
