We’ve made a promise to the people of Oregon to make the state’s death rate from cancer the lowest in the U.S. Our commitment to fulfilling this goal powers all we do - pushing us to learn more about what causes cancer and how it can be stopped. With over 200 clinical trials in progress, we are searching for new cures, standards of care, treatments and therapies for cancer.

Our mission statement

At the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, we see a world without cancer. As pioneers in personalized cancer medicine, we continue to change the way the world understands and fights this disease. We will:

• Provide individually-tailored, compassionate care for every patient, from diagnosis through survivorship.
• Discover new ways to prevent cancer.
• Develop new personalized cancer therapies.

We will end cancer as we know it.

Knight Cancer history

The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute became Oregon’s only NCI-designated cancer center in 1997. The institute is known internationally for its leadership in fighting cancer at the molecular level. The most celebrated cancer discovery in a generation—the targeted drug Gleevec—was developed at OHSU by Brian J. Druker, M.D., the director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research. Druker also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator.