Our Mission

 
The Women’s Cancers Classic supports cutting-edge, collaborative research in breast and gynecologic cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.  Our mission is three-fold:

1)      Provide a vehicle for men to come together as a unified force to support women’s cancers research

2)      Maximize the impact of women’s cancers research by fostering collaboration through Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

3)      Grow the next generation of women’s cancers researchers by supporting the best of Dana-Farber’s faculty

Although men are deeply affected by women’s cancers, there has been no existing paradigm for them to make a collective impact.  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provides an existing infrastructure to support collaborative, cutting-edge efforts aimed at speeding the most promising new ideas from the laboratory to the women and families facing these diseases.  By joining forces with the Collaborative and by investing in this world-renowned cancer center, men can play a vital role in advancing progress in women’s cancers research.

Your Impact

In this spirit, the Men’s Collaborative fundraising will fuel women’s cancers research in the following ways:

Fellowships and Career Development Awards
The future of cancer research and the promise of new and effective treatments depend upon the continued training and support of highly talented, creative physician/scientists.  With funding from the Collaborative, these Dana-Farber investigators can advance their careers and pursue novel research; exchanging ideas and collaborating on a wide variety of scientific partnerships.  


Seed Funding For Innovative Research Projects
Funding for cutting-edge research can be difficult to secure, as the most innovative research ideas are most often not eligible for funding from traditional sources such as federal grants until “proof of principal” has been established.  The Collaborative plays a vital role in advancing discovery by providing seed funding to support research in these initial “idea” stages.  The resulting data can then be leveraged to obtain federal funding and other large grants to support the work underway.

Advancing Collaborative Research Initiatives
The power and synergy of collaborative research is well-documented in the many accomplishments made at Dana-Farber.  The Men’s Collaborative seeks to leverage these existing relationships among researchers across DFCI to vastly accelerate the development of novel women’s cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.  Current examples of DFCI collaborations include ground-breaking research on screening and prevention, genetic fingerprinting, vaccine development, and drug resistance.