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Northern Light Health will expand its existing clinical trial and advanced treatment offerings for cancer patients, thanks in part to a local family’s $10 million gift that was announced Wednesday.
The Jim and Cathy Gero Center for Genomics and Advanced Therapies, which will open inside Eastern Maine Medical Center’s existing cancer care institute in Brewer, will enable more patients from all over northern and eastern Maine to stay closer to home for care.
“With our amazing cancer care team, state-of-the-art facilities and Eastern Maine Medical Center’s collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Northern Light Health is uniquely positioned to be a leader in genomic research and advanced therapies for Maine,” Cynthia Faulkner, president of Northern Light Health Foundation, said Wednesday.
Genomic medicine involves studying the biology of a tumor and using that information to choose targeted therapies that are personalized to the patient, Sarah Sinclair, EMMC’s medical director of cancer research and medical oncology, said.
This is how her team treats nearly every cancer patient and how it determines which patients could be a good fit for a clinical trial. If EMMC doesn’t have the right trial available, patients might travel to Boston, which can be challenging.
“Research is expensive, hiring staff is expensive, running clinical trials is labor intensive, and this type of gift will allow us to expand on what we have been doing already. Open more trials, offer more advanced therapies for our patients so they do not have to travel,” Sinclair said.
Jim Gero made the donation to establish the center in honor of his wife, Cathy, who died from cancer in 2022. The pair are prominent philanthropists in the Bangor area. An orthopedic center at St. Joseph Hospital, a fellowship at Acadia National Park and the not-yet-opened Bangor YMCA all bear their name.
EMMC was the first Maine hospital to join the Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative, the hospital’s president, Ava Collins, noted. The program involves a rigorous membership review process for hospitals and affords educational opportunities to clinicians and quicker access to specialists for patients.
