{"id":24783,"date":"2023-02-28T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=24783"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:55:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:55:29","slug":"medical-research-role-cancer-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/medical-research-role-cancer-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Deaths from cancer are declining, thanks to research","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Deaths from cancer are declining \u2014 the American Association for Cancer Research<\/a> reports a 32 percent reduction in the U.S. cancer death rate between 1991 and 2019. This equates to nearly 3.5 million cancer deaths avoided in that time frame.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s driving this progress? A big factor is medical research. Studies have led to improvements in treatments, diagnostics and screening, leading to earlier cancer detection and a longer, better quality of life after diagnosis.<\/p>\n

MultiCare Health System has played a role in oncology advances since 1983, when the organization first began participating in research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started out as a small research program, with one office, focused on cancer trials for adults,\u201d says Karyn Pendleton Hart, CCRP, who helped foster MultiCare\u2019s research program from its infancy. \u201cNow we\u2019ve become an institute, studying everything from asthma to kidney disease. It\u2019s been really nice to watch our research efforts grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building a mountain of knowledge<\/h2>\n

What does it take to launch and sustain a successful research program? One key ingredient is a savvy research coordinator, like Hart.<\/p>\n

Hart joined MultiCare in 1984, just a year after the organization was approved as a Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) site. Funded by the National Cancer Institute<\/a>, CCOP was designed to improve access to clinical trials.<\/p>\n

\u201cCCOP program sites like ours made it possible for patients to participate in national cancer clinical trials in their own community, without having to travel long distances to a university hospital,\u201d Hart says. \u201cAt the time, we were enrolling about 40 adults in trials for breast cancer and leukemia. But each year we kept growing and growing, applying for more and more grants, and partnering with more institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Hart has served as a mentor for Lisa Strasbaugh, who was involved in oncology research in the Puyallup community for several years before joining MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaryn has taught me everything that I know about being a research coordinator,\u201d Strasbaugh says. \u201cShe showed me how to be the best that I could be for patients, how to manage data, how to keep myself organized, among so many other things. Nobody starts out with a mountain of knowledge \u2014 you have to build it. Karyn not only helped me do that \u2014 she helped MultiCare do that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving change in oncology, building a research institute<\/h2>\n

Together, Hart and Strasbaugh have witnessed many changes in oncology as new treatments emerged, some of which became the standard of care.<\/p>\n

In 1992, the CCOP network, including MultiCare\u2019s site, was used for the first time to conduct a large national prevention trial. The trial evaluated the effectiveness of a drug called tamoxifen in preventing breast cancer in women who were at an increased risk for developing the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women who participated in that trial were so excited and it was always fun to see them at their visits \u2014 I got to hear all about their lives,\u201d Hart says. \u201cAnd tamoxifen did turn out to be effective. Women taking this drug reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by almost half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another national breast cancer trial conducted at MultiCare and other CCOP sites in the mid-90s tested a drug called trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin, in patients who had HER2 positive breast cancers<\/a>. These cancers have a high level of protein known as HER2 and tend to spread quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis drug not only became the standard of care but also helped pave the way for more HER2 positive medications to follow \u2014 combined, they changed the face of cancer care for women with this type of disease,\u201d Strasbaugh says.<\/p>\n

Over the years, MultiCare has conducted trials testing new treatments, diagnostics and prevention strategies in a wide variety of cancers, including prostate cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer and more. The organization went from conducting National Cancer Institute studies only to participating in pharmaceutical research for all stages of cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching this growth over the past 40 years has been like seeing a car transform into a jet. MultiCare has really proven itself to be a premier research site, and that\u2019s thanks to many people.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen Karyn and I were first doing this work, there would be one standard of care for years and years, and now there\u2019s movement across all kinds of cancers and those standards are constantly changing,\u201d Strasbaugh says. \u201cNew treatments that target a cancer\u2019s specific genes and proteins are at the forefront right now and that\u2019s all because of research.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010, the MultiCare Institute for Research & Innovation* was borne to house all of MultiCare\u2019s research efforts \u2014 which today focus on many diseases in addition to cancer \u2014 within a single program. The Institute is now the largest community-based nonacademic research center in the Pacific Northwest, offering research opportunities for children and adults across the state of Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching this growth over the past 40 years has been like seeing a car transform into a jet,\u201d Strasbaugh says. \u201cMultiCare has really proven itself to be a premier research site, and that\u2019s thanks to many people. We have a lot of physician engagement and we have fostered relationships with an ever-growing list of community partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the standard of care<\/h2>\n

Just as MultiCare\u2019s research program has evolved over the years, so too have the professional paths for Hart and Strasbaugh. Today, Hart works as a pediatric research coordinator at Mary Bridge Children\u2019s, while Strasbaugh, a clinical operations administrative coordinator, focuses on recruitment and screening for cancer clinical trials.<\/p>\n

Yet what hasn\u2019t changed is their passion for research. There are two things that keep Hart and Strasbaugh excited about what they do. The first is the boundless opportunity for learning and discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is always something new to tackle, both in oncology and in research in general,\u201d Hart says. \u201cFor example, when COVID hit a few years ago, we suddenly needed to shift our focus and start working on COVID trials. No one knew anything about COVID-19 at first, and then within a few years we were testing drugs that came to fruition as effective treatments. It\u2019s things like that that keep me going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another source of inspiration? The patients themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I find a patient that is potentially eligible for a trial, it\u2019s exciting,\u201d Strasbaugh says. \u201cBecause I know we can offer them something more than the standard of care. It\u2019s really a privilege to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

*The MultiCare Institute for Research & Innovation closed in November 2025. However, MultiCare continues to conduct research at\u00a0Pulse Heart Institute<\/a>, MultiCare Cancer Institute<\/a> and MultiCare Mary Bridge Children\u2019s<\/a>, among other areas within our organization. To learn more about clinical trial opportunities, talk to your provider or visit ClinicalTrials.gov<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deaths from cancer are declining \u2014 the American Association for Cancer Research reports a 32 percent reduction in the U.S. cancer death rate between 1991 and 2019. This equates to nearly 3.5 million cancer deaths avoided in that time frame. What\u2019s driving this progress? A big factor is medical research. Studies have led to improvements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer","category-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDeaths from cancer are declining, thanks to research - MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Medical research has led to improvements in cancer treatments, diagnostics and screening, leading to earlier cancer detection.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/medical-research-role-cancer-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deaths from cancer are declining, thanks to research - 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