Health Care and Construction Workers Create Pink Ribbon For Breast Cancer Awareness

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More than 600 health care and construction workers donned pink hard hats while forming a giant human ribbon at the UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center construction site today in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The event, coordinated by EMCOR/Dynalectric San Diego, launches a month-long call to action campaign to remind people to be screened for breast cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death among women after lung cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, 40,000 women are expected to die from breast cancer in 2014.

“Breast cancer can affect both men and women,” said Anne Wallace, MD, director of the UC San Diego Health System Comprehensive Breast Health Center. “Knowing your family history and risk factors could save your life. Have a discussion with your physician now about risks associated with your individual genes. If you need treatment, seek a comprehensive breast center where you’ll get customized treatment plans using a team-approach that cares for the whole patient.”

Wallace and other UC San Diego Health System employees joined EMCOR/Dynalectric and Kitchell construction workers, along with Congressman Scott Peters, Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins and San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts to form the 88-foot-long pink ribbon. Throughout the month of October, workers at the Jacobs Medical Center construction site will wear the pink hard hats.

The 10-story Jacobs Medical Center is slated to open in La Jolla in 2016, with three clinical care units under one roof: the Hospital for Advanced Surgery, the Hospital for Women and Infants and the newly named Pauline and Stanley Foster Hospital for Cancer Care.

The Hospital for Cancer Care will be the only in-patient facility of its kind in San Diego County, which has the fifth largest U.S. population, and where cancer is the No. 1 cause of death. With 108 dedicated beds, the facility will double UC San Diego Health System’s capacity to treat patients with every form of malignancy. It will also be the critical inpatient venue for delivery of scientific discoveries made by university researchers, providing the region with a broad array of leading-edge treatments.

For example, patients will have access to targeted, personalized treatments, such as stem cell therapy and cell-based immunotherapy, both requiring inpatient care by specialized staff. It will provide expanded state-of-the-art facilities for treatment of some of the most fragile patients, including those cared for by the Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Program, jointly sponsored by UC San Diego Health System and Sharp Healthcare.

The proximity between the Hospital for Cancer Care and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center seamlessly connects and aligns patient care.

“We will provide a familiar and healing environment, expert physicians and staff and personalized cancer care with a continuum of services tailored to the needs of patients and their families, including treatment, clinical trials, nutrition, family support and other outpatient programs at Moores Cancer Center,” said Scott M. Lippman, MD, director of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and associate vice chancellor for cancer research and care.