The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, known as a pioneer in personalized cancer medicine, is an international leader in research and cancer treatment.
The institute’s director, Brian Druker, M.D., helped prove it was possible to shut down cells that enable cancer to grow without harming healthy ones. This breakthrough has helped make once-fatal forms of the disease manageable and ushered in a new generation of targeted cancer therapies. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center between Sacramento and Seattle—an honor earned only by the nation’s top cancer centers. It offers the latest treatments and technologies as well as hundreds of research studies and clinical trials.
Early detection of cancer saves lives.
Driven by its mission to end cancer as we know it, the Institute is building upon its expertise in targeted treatments to advance the early detection of cancer, when the disease is most treatable. In June 2015, the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute announced to the world that it had achieved a $500 million fundraising challenge set by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, raising $1 billion for cancer research. Part of this funding includes the creation of Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center (CEDAR), a program that addresses one of the biggest unmet needs in cancer treatment today.
CEDAR is led by Sadik Esener, Ph.D., as director and the Wendt Family Endowed Chair in Early Cancer Detection. As a nanotechnology expert, engineer and computer scientist, he brings an engineering systems-based approach to the role by integrating state-of-the-art technologies and cutting-edge research with a team of the best and brightest scientists in the world.
Understand your personal cancer risk.
The Healthy Oregon Project, or HOP, is supported by a team of geneticists, community outreach specialists, scientists, and genetic counselors at Oregon Health & Science University dedicated to understanding why some people get cancers and others do not, and how to identify cancer much earlier. The project is led by two Knight Cancer Institute investigators:
Contact our study team at HealthyOregonProject@ohsu.edu with any questions.
Paul Spellman, Ph.D.
Dr. Spellman is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics in the OHSU School of Medicine. At the Knight Cancer Institute, he co-leads the Quantitative Oncology Program and is a co-director of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center.
Jackie Shannon, Ph.D., R.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Shannon is associate director of community outreach and engagement in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. She directs the Institute’s Community Engaged Research Program and co-directs the Community Partnership Program. She is a professor in the OHSU School of Public Health and serves as associate director of OCTRI, the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute.
