WASHINGTON - The Avon Foundation for Women awarded a $500,000 grant to Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in support of its Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC) in southeast Washington. The check was presented Sunday, May 6th after the 10th annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

CBCC is a community initiative of Georgetown Lombardi and part of its minority health and health disparities program. It offers the only community-based, accredited mammography facility in the Washington, D.C. area providing comprehensive breast cancer screening services and health education to uninsured women. CBCC was founded in 2004 with a generous grant from the Avon Foundation for Women.

"Avon's support of CBCC is significant because it has an immediate and direct impact on women in the Washington, DC-area," explains Louis M. Weiner, M.D., Georgetown Lombardi's director. "Avon's contribution to CBCC allows us to offer breast cancer screening and breast care education to women who might not otherwise receive it. CBCC saves lives and we're grateful for Avon's direct role in that effort."

Dr. Marc Hurlbert, executive director of the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, announced during the closing ceremony a total of $4.25 million in grants to ten local organizations, including CBCC, ensuring the funds raised immediately benefit the community.

"Our beneficiaries are leaders from your communities in the fight against breast cancer," said Hurlbert. "They represent organizations that offer life-saving services to patients regardless of their ability to pay and they're doing cutting-edge research to find better treatments, prevention strategies, and ultimately a cure. These new grants will literally help them save lives."

The Georgetown Lombardi/Capital Breast Care Center's 40-member team raised more than $86,000 for the walk. Jeanne Mandelblatt, M.D., Ph.D., associate director for population sciences, served as the team's captain.

"I walk so that our patients will know that we are with them every step of the way," says Mandelblatt, a devoted epidemiologist with a focus on breast cancer and aging.

Weiner says Mandelblatt is a true leader for the team providing her teammates with "inexhaustible energy, inspiration, organization and affection."

This year's Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington raised more than $5 million to advance access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer. The walk attracted 2,200 participants from 39 states and Washington, D.C., including 269 breast cancer survivors, who joined together to raise life-saving funds and awareness for breast cancer.

About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Georgetown Lombardi is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute, and the only one in the Washington, DC, area. For more information, go to https://lombardi.georgetown.edu.

About Georgetown University Medical Center

Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. In fiscal year 2010-11, GUMC accounted for 85 percent of the university's sponsored research funding.


Source: Georgetown University