Mass General Cancer Center Receives Largest Donation in its History to Fuel Cancer Research

The newly named Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research will empower Mass General Cancer Center researchers to tackle the major unsolved challenges in oncology

BOSTON, MA – Mass General Cancer Center, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham system, has received the largest gift in its 34-year history from philanthropists Jason and Keely Krantz to power the future of cancer research. In honor of their landmark contribution, the Cancer Center’s pre-eminent research division will now be known as the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research. The Krantz family’s visionary commitment, which is also the largest cancer research-directed gift in the hospital’s history, includes annual funding for innovative and collaborative research projects, advanced technologies to support lab research and an endowment to ensure sustainability.

“Cancer research is at a crossroads,” says Jason Krantz, founder and executive chairman of Definitive Healthcare. “We’ve seen incredible progress in the last decade, and yet cures for many forms of the disease remain out of reach. We’re excited to give Mass General Cancer Center researchers the support they need to close that gap. Keely and I believe that by making this investment, we can enable a monumental change in how cancer is diagnosed and treated for patients everywhere.”

“This gift from the Krantz family is pivotal for the future of cancer research,” said David F. M. Brown, MD, President of Massachusetts General Hospital. “It is both a powerful recognition of the work that Mass General Cancer Center researchers have accomplished to date, and a critical boost for all the research that is still to come — the knowledge and solutions that we have sought for decades.”

The Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research is home to 50 individual Mass General faculty members, appointed in multiple departments of Harvard Medical School, whose lab research spans fundamental cancer genomics, proteomics and cell biology, to molecular diagnostics, drug discovery and cellular immune therapies. Investigators have established an international reputation for scientific excellence, particularly for the partnership between basic research and patient care.

As part of this historic gift, a new series of competitive awards will be available annually for Krantz Center researchers. The awards will be distributed in three tiers: Quantum Awards (with up to $2 million given to research with the potential to transform overall understanding and treatment of cancer); Breakthrough Awards (up to $1 million, given to projects that accelerate the most promising scientific concepts) and Spark Awards ($100,000, to test exciting new thought-provoking ideas). Awardees will be determined through a rigorous selection process with internal and external scientific review.

“Basic science is particularly exciting at a hospital like Mass General because our faculty are oriented toward clinically relevant questions and have unique access to patients to iterate more quickly on ideas. This means that the time from discovery to an approved therapy can be dramatically shorted,” said Daniel Haber, MD, PhD, director of Mass General Cancer Center and of the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research. “The Krantzes’ generosity and partnership will enable us to accelerate this process even further giving our faculty the funding they need to pursue the most cutting-edge research.”

About Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.