Senator Kennedy was driving force against cancer at Dana-Farber and beyond

From the days in 1961 when he criss-crossed the state by car with Institute Founder Sidney Farber, MD, to the landmark federal cancer bill he co-sponsored this past spring, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy spent nearly a half century seeking legislation to combat the disease that ultimately claimed his life. In these efforts, Dana-Farber was always close to his agenda — and his heart.

Kennedy, who died this morning at 77 after a year-long battle with brain cancer, was a regular visitor to Dana-Farber in the early 1970s when his young son, Ted Jr., was successfully treated for a rare bone cancer by a team headed by then-Institute Physician-in-Chief Emil Frei III, MD.

The elder Kennedy worked with Frei and other Dana-Farber leaders during that decade's federally funded "War On Cancer." More recently, he was a key proponent of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center efforts (with the University of Massachusetts Boston) to end disparities in cancer treatment among area residents of color and attract new talent into the healthcare professions, aided by a $4.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

"All of us at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — patients, families, faculty, staff, and supporters — are deeply saddened by the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy," said Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, president and CEO of Dana-Farber.

"He was a friend and ally of Dana-Farber and of everyone touched by cancer. There are countless cancer survivors who are alive today because of the Senator's passionate and tireless efforts to support cancer research, to ensure better access to cancer care, and to promote cancer prevention.

"It is a cruel irony that the Senator's life was taken by cancer. Part of his legacy will surely be an improved outlook for future generations of cancer patients," Benz said.

Kennedy's tireless efforts earned him several honors from Dana-Farber in recent years. In 2000 he was given the Sidney Farber Medical Research Award, presented annually since 1968 to "individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the fight against cancer, either through research or public service."

The distinction came shortly after Kennedy led a coalition of Massachusetts healthcare providers, including Dana-Farber, to spur Congress and the Clinton Administration to provide millions of dollars in relief from federal Medicare cutbacks to Massachusetts hospitals.

A few years later, in 2006, the senator was the first non-scientist to ever present the prestigious Andrew H. Weinberg Memorial Lecture at Dana-Farber.

The lecture, named for a young Dana-Farber patient who died of a rare muscle tumor, presents prominent investigators, medical professionals, and policymakers with a forum for discussing new approaches and trends in cancer research.

Kennedy's talk was entitled "Fulfilling the Potential of the Century of Life Sciences" and served as a warning about the impact of proposed reductions in federal funding for cancer research by then-President George W. Bush.

"This [Dana-Farber] is the place where hope so often becomes a reality," Kennedy told a packed crowd of staff, patients, and families in the Jimmy Fund Auditorium.

"You have made the extraordinary routine, and patients across Massachusetts and throughout the world have benefitted. The progress will continue on into the future, thanks to astonishing research being done at the Institute today."

Kennedy's life was intertwined with the history of Dana-Farber at many points. In 1953, as a 21-year-old, he presented a check for $50,000 on behalf of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation to fund Sidney Farber's fledging organization, which had just moved from a single basement laboratory into the brand new Jimmy Fund Building.

In 1961, a year before entering the senate, Kennedy did his appeals with Dr. Farber on behalf of the American Cancer Society for additional funding.

"We must have spent 45 or 50 nights together," Kennedy recalled later. "We would drive to Springfield, Pittsfield, all over the Commonwealth. I'll never forget the look on the faces of people in attendance when Dr. Farber spoke. He talked very quietly, but it was a powerful voice and message that was able to reach the last seat in the hall."

As Dana-Farber grew, Kennedy was there with his own powerful voice and presence to celebrate. He attended both the dedication of the Dana building in 1976 and the groundbreaking for the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care in 2007.

At the latter ceremony, he told the crowd he was looking forward to the day that Dana-Farber, through the work conducted in the Yawkey Center, would be able to say it had helped cure cancer.

"Senator Kennedy has absolutely driven the National Institutes of Health (NIH) agenda and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) agenda constantly, consistently, and most of all, effectively in this country," Dana-Farber President Emeritus David G. Nathan, MD, said upon bestowing Kennedy with the Farber Medal in 2000.

"We have all seen the enormous growth of the NIH and the NCI, and it's a result of his ability to get colleagues from all spectrums of the political arena to focus on something good: cancer research and making it work."

Through all his efforts, Kennedy's feelings for the place that helped save the lives of his son and so many others shined through.

"At work in the Senate, I'm inspired by the commitment and dedication of the doctors, nurses, and staff at Dana-Farber," he said in his Weinberg Lecture.

"You are proof that with dedication and a commitment to excellence anything can be accomplished. In World War II the Army Air Force had a motto that could just as easily apply to Dana-Farber: 'The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a bit longer.'

"But not much longer, I would add, in the case of Dana-Farber."

— Saul Wisnia
saul_wisnia@dfci.harvard.edu