Wilmot Cancer Institute

06/04/2026

Thank you to Strollin' for the Colon - Toni's Race for your wonderful support!

The group recently donated $2,000 for the Wilmot Patient Needs Fund. This fund helps cancer patients who need help with areas outside medical needs - such as transportation or food. We're also grateful to see support of Sparsh Kumar, a medical student who will be helping the Gastroenterology team with a research project related to inherited cancer syndromes.

Thank you to this group and everyone involved who has helped make a difference for those in our community who have cancer!

06/03/2026

Wilmot Cancer Institute had a strong presence at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, one of the largest gatherings of cancer clinical researchers from around the world.

Wilmot Director Jonathan Friedberg, MD, MMSc, shared his thoughts on the work Wilmot researchers presented and what he found most exciting about the meeting.

06/02/2026

What can nurses do when they notice a challenge or a problem?

They can ask questions and turn these challenges into research or quality-improvement projects that make a difference and improve cancer care!

Many Wilmot Cancer Institute nurses shared abstracts at the 2026 Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Annual Congress, meaning their work is not only improving care at home but also sparking ideas among nurses across the country. Recently, some of the nurses who gave national presentations shared their work here at Wilmot so local colleagues could learn, even if they couldn't attend the conference.

Projects focused on many topics, including helping patients with fatigue, forming an internal committee to address financial toxicity, developing training to educate new nurses, establishing a volunteer-based program to assist patients at the end of their lives, and more.

Well done, team! Thank you for your work.

06/01/2026

June marks National Cancer Survivors Month, and we're inspired to celebrate the 18.6 million cancer survivors in the U.S. today. Cancer survivors represent about 5.5% of the U.S. population, and we are dedicated to helping them survive and thrive after a cancer diagnosis.

We're also honored to recognize those who have been impacted by uterine cancer during Uterine Cancer Awareness Month.

If you are a cancer survivor, share a 💜
If you know and love a cancer survivor, share a 🎗️

05/30/2026

As Oncology Nursing Month comes to a close, thank you to Harbor House of Rochester, Inc. for highlighting some of our oncology nurses in its May newsletter!

If you’ve ever experienced a tough hospital stay, or even an outpatient visit for a serious medical issue, you probably recall more than a few...

05/29/2026

Cancer research isn't only focused on what's happening in our cells. Sometimes it's about finding ways to improve the way cancer care is delivered.

That's the area of cancer research that Meghan Underhill, PhD, APRN, FAAN, is working on.

She is an oncology nurse scientist who studies ways to improve outcomes for people who receive cancer genetics care or who are living with hereditary cancer risk.

While she loves her career now, being a nurse-scientist is not what she had originally set out to do. Meghan initially set out with a goal to write about environmental issues, but she was drawn to nursing by her family. She's proud to be both a nurse and a researcher, and she thinks it's important to have nurses involved in cancer research.

"We nurses are often faced with things where we have lots of questions or things we wish we could do differently, but that we may not have the time, skill, or resources to fix," she says. "I have enjoyed learning some of those tools and skills to then take what I know clinically and what I know from a research perspective and use both to identify ways to fix problems to make care better."

University of Rochester School of Nursing

05/29/2026

Very proud of our leadership in exercise oncology research!

05/28/2026

In 2026, our Discovery Ball gala soared to new heights! ✈️

The airplane-themed event raised a gross total of $𝟭,𝟭𝟬𝟴,𝟱𝟮𝟲 for Wilmot Cancer Institute. Amazing!

These funds will primarily support a Developmental Therapeutics program at Wilmot. The goal of this will be to help bring cancer research discoveries from the lab to clinical trials more efficiently.

We're giving a shout-out to everyone involved with the event! Special thanks to Discovery Ball Chair Ralph Olney III, along with all sponsors, donors, and community partners who helped make this event a success.

05/26/2026

🚨 Exciting clinical trials news! 🚨

Wilmot Cancer Institute has received a $7.7 million "Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS)" grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Wilmot was selected because of its strength in enrolling patients in cooperative clinical trials. For example, Wilmot has been 𝘵𝘩𝘦 top enrolling site in the U.S. for large, cancer-related clinical trials through the cooperative group SWOG.

Cooperative trials are designed by oncology experts to address an important problem in cancer care. They are funded by the NCI and intended to be practice-changing - meaning the results help to alter the way cancer is treated, bringing safer and more effective therapies to patients.

05/22/2026

Wilmot nurses are kind and compassionate - but they are also creative and innovative who lead the field!

More than a dozen nurses recently shared their work at the Oncology Nursing Society Annual Meeting, a gathering of oncology nurses from across the country.

They presented on a variety of topics, from patient education to improving care transitions between cancer disciplines to establishing new initiatives that improve patient safety and satisfaction.

We're so proud of all of them. Well done, team! 👏 👏