BOSTON—There's a huge hole in the ground in the shadow of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, but within 4 years, a gleaming 13-story facility—the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care—will rise on the corner of Brookline Avenue and Jimmy Fund Way, creating a new "front entrance" to the Institute and expanded cancer care opportunities for the thousands of patients who will walk through it each year.
Constructed on Dana-Farber's last remaining parcel of land (see photo), the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care is a vital component in the Institute's goal of making Dana-Farber the "model cancer center" for patient care, basic science, and the research that bridges them.
As part of a bold strategic plan called Mission Possible: The Dana-Farber Campaign to Conquer Cancer, the Institute seeks to raise a $1 billion capital investment in four critical areas (see Figure): research and care, technology, the Yawkey Center, and the Jimmy Fund, named for a young cancer patient of Dr. Farber who was introduced to the nation in a 1948 fundraising radio broadcast of the show "Truth or Consequences."
Mission Possible holds with the vision of the Institute's founder, Sidney Farber, MD, a doctor of indefatigable drive, who, in 1947, became known as the "father of chemotherapy," after achieving the first clinical remission ever reported in childhood leukemia.
A tall, stately man, Dr. Farber was, in many respects, ahead of his time, coming up with the then novel concept of "total care," in which all patient care and family services are delivered compassionately in one facility. Today, the institute that bears his name embraces that standard, delivering comprehensive care in more than 150,000 patient-visits a year.
