About Cancer Research
Cancer Research at Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital was established in 1811 and is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. With an annual research budget of more than $500 million, it conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, through major research centers in cancer, human genetics, regenerative biology, systems biology, AIDS, cardiovascular medicine, computational biology, cutaneous biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.
Research on cancer, from its genetic causes to sophisticated imaging, molecular therapeutics, and population-based prevention studies, takes place across the entire institution: in the dedicated laboratories of the Center for Cancer Research, in the radiation biology-focused studies in the Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology, and in laboratories within the departments of medicine, surgery, radiation therapy, pediatrics, pathology, radiology, neurology, neurosurgery, molecular biology, orthopedics, urology, dermatology and psychiatry. Clinical research is orchestrated within dedicated multidisciplinary disease centers and supported by a centralized protocol office. The Massachusetts General Hospital is proud of its exceptionally diverse and collaborative research program on cancer, ranging from the laboratory to the clinic.
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center was created by the Board of Trustees of the hospital in 1986 to enhance clinical care, research and education in cancer. The Cancer Center’s mission is to: provide comprehensive, compassionate care to a diverse community of patients and families; conduct fundamental research into the causes of cancer and its treatment; foster the translation of basic research to clinical application; educate and train the country’s future scientific and clinical leaders in oncology.
The Cancer Center’s founding director, Kurt J. Isselbacher, MD, was succeeded in 2003 by Daniel A. Haber, MD, PhD. Edward Harlow, PhD, served as scientific director until the appointment of Jeffrey Settleman, PhD, in 2007. Bruce A. Chabner, MD, has served as clinical director since 1995. In addition to laboratory research efforts, which include the multi-departmental Center for Cancer Research, the Cancer Center supports 18 multi-disciplinary clinical disease centers.