Newswise — OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 20, 2011) – The INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma is proud to support the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011, which features the story of Zora Brown, special assistant for health at INTEGRIS Health. Brown is a stage three ovarian cancer survivor and a breast cancer survivor for more than 30 years.
“I am living proof of the power of cancer research, and I am thrilled to have this opportunity to tell my story,” said Brown, who is also founder and chairperson of Cancer Awareness Program Services and the Breast Cancer Resource Committee. She served on the National Cancer Advisory Board from 1991 to 1998. Brown is a trustee for the AACR Foundation for the Prevention and Cure of Cancer.
“Cancer research funding enable the work that shed light on the molecular makeup of my cancer, and supported the development of targeted treatments,” she added. “It is imperative that research be adequately funded s we move forward, so people like me – a cancer survivor for more than 30 years – will become the norm rather than the exception.”
The report was released by the American Association for Cancer Research on September 20, 2011 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. It highlights scientific and technological breakthroughs that have arisen since the enactment of the National Cancer Act of 1971, and provides a glimpse of what the future could hold for cancer patients and their families.
The AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011 highlights the fundamental knowledge the research community has acquired about cancer’s complexity, and attests to the fact that scientists and others are now poised to capitalize on this momentum to hasten the prevention and cure of cancer.
Finally, the report addresses instability in federal research funding by calling on Congress to renew its commitment to making cancer research and biomedical funding a national priority.
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INTEGRIS Health is the state’s largest Oklahoma-owned, not-for-profit health care corporation with hospitals, rehabilitation centers, physician clinics, mental health facilities, fitness centers, independent living centers and home health agencies throughout much of the state. Through its affiliates, INTEGRIS Health operates 15 hospitals, led in Oklahoma City area by INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center and INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center. The organization has affiliated mental health providers in 50 Oklahoma towns and cities, and offers hospice services through Hospice of Oklahoma County. Since opening in 2009, INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma has treated patients from 25 states and five countries.
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