March 30, 2001

If the MGH had a doorbell, it would have been ringing loudly this week to welcome a $2.2 million gift from Avon Products Foundation. The donation will support the MGH Cancer Center in treating and researching breast cancer and in caring for breast cancer patients. The gift is part of $16.2 million in total awards distributed to a select group of leading medical centers and service organizations across the country. The funds were raised through the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade.

The MGH Cancer Center will use the gift to bring state-of-the-art breast cancer care and services to underserved communities, as well as to provide much-needed breast cancer research funding.

"The generosity of the Avon Products Foundation will enable us to strengthen access to vital breast cancer services for some of the most vulnerable populations in the Boston area," says Bruce Chabner, MD, clinical director of the MGH Cancer Center. "We also are excited about the support for innovative research efforts in breast cancer genetics and biology. Avon's interest in supporting new and better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent breast cancer will help us to one day declare complete victory over a disease that continues to affect far too many women."

The MGH's Avon-supported outreach initiative will focus on two sites in the Boston area: the MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center, which serves 30,000 patients a year, mostly from Latino and immigrant populations; and the Mattapan Community Health Center in Boston, which serves a primarily African-American community including a large percentage of Caribbean immigrants. Data show that Mattapan has the highest breast cancer mortality rate in Boston.

Outreach efforts also will build upon the existing Breast and Cervical Screening Collaborative, which offers mobile and on-site mammography to uninsured women at 14 neighborhood health centers in the Boston area. This screening effort is coordinated by Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, a collaborative clinical program in adult oncology that involves the combined efforts of the MGH, BWH and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The gift also will support promising research at the MGH that focuses on the molecular genetics of breast cancer. It will help fund such projects as identifying genetic risk factors for early-onset breast cancer, developing a breast cancer chip for tumor classification and creating a core research facility to analyze genetic mutations associated with breast cancer. In addition, the contribution will allow funding for up to six seed grants of $45,000 each that will be used for clinical application of new, encouraging approaches to breast cancer detection and treatment.