University Of Pennsylvania Receives $55 Million Gift To Study, Treat Hereditary Cancers

The University of Pennsylvania has received a $55 million gift for the study and treatment of hereditary cancers. The gift, from Penn alumni Mindy and Jon Gray, will be used to establish the Basser Cancer Interception Institute, at the Basser Center for BRCA , part of Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.

The goal of the Institute is to move up the timeline of cancer treatment, “intercepting” various forms of the disease when abnormal BRCA1/2 cells develop — rather than relying on standard treatments like surgery, radiation or chemotherapy after a cancer has been detected. In its announcement, the university said, “the Basser team will pioneer efforts ranging from drugs and immune-based approaches to intercept BRCA-related cancers to new methods of detecting cancer cells with biomarkers and artificial intelligence.”

According to the National Cancer Institute, BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tumor suppressor genes that play a role in controlling or preventing cancer. An error or mutation in a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene increases an individual’s cancer risks. The mutation can also be inherited by an individual’s children who then face increased cancer risks in adulthood.

Roughly 13% of women in the general population will develop breast cancer sometime during their lives. However, 55%–72% of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 variant and 45%–69% of women who inherit a harmful BRCA2 variant will develop breast cancer. In addition, while 1.2% of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer sometime during their lives, 39%–44% of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 variant and 11%–17% of women who inherit a harmful BRCA2 variant will develop ovarian cancer by 70–80 years of age.

Harmful variants of BRCA1 and BRCA2 have also been linked to increased risk of several additional cancers, including fallopian tube cancer, primary peritoneal cancer and to some extent pancreatic cancer. Men with harmful BRCA2 variants, and to a lesser extent BRCA1 variants, are also at increased risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

The goal of cancer interception, according to Susan Domchek, executive director of the Basser Center for BRCA , is to identify and deploy a toolkit of strategies that can be used much like HPV testing for cervical cancer screening and colonoscopies for colon cancer, both of which allow identification of pre-cancerous cells and opportunities to intervene before they develop into disease.

An interception strategy for BRCA mutation carriers could, for example, include a series of timed interventions designed to contain cancers including more intensive monitoring, using cancer vaccines, prescribing inhibitory drugs or employing preventive radiation.

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Mindy and John Gray have now committed more than $125 million to the University of Pennsylvania over the last decade, including a $25 million gift that created the Basser Center in 2012 in honor of Mindy’s sister, Faith Basser, who died at age 44 of BRCA-related ovarian cancer.

Jon Gray is President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone, He previously served as the firm’s Global Head of Real Estate, which he helped to build into the largest real estate platform in the world. He joined Blackstone in 1992.

In addition to their gifts to the University of Pennsylvania, the Grays also established NYC Kids RISE in partnership with the City of New York to accelerate college savings for low income children.

“Mindy and Jon are philanthropic visionaries who give of themselves in many creative ways that have made profound differences in the way we educate, care for, and engage with patients and families who are coping with and at risk of hereditary cancers,” said Penn President Liz Magill. “We are so proud to partner with them to transform the outlook for individuals with BRCA mutations and give them better, nonsurgical, options to live healthy, long lives.”

“The dream of intercepting these cancers at their earliest stages or preventing them in the first place is no longer science fiction,” said Mindy and Jon Gray. “We are thrilled to build on the decade of success at the Basser Center and work towards what should be a transformation in how future generations face these diseases.”