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Cancer Survivor Pat Sclafani Procures Second 20K Donation from ABB for Yale Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology Program
Daniel Boffa, MD, Pat Sclafani, and Frank Detterbeck, MD
In September of 2006, Pat Sclafani was diagnosed with stage IV Thymoma. A Thymoma is a very rare tumor of the thymus gland with only about 1,000 cases diagnosed in the United States each year. After undergoing a long road of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation at Yale Cancer Center under the care of Dr. Frank Detterbeck, Surgical Director of the Yale Thoracic Oncology Program, and not only surviving, but thriving, Mr. Sclafani knew it was time to make sure other people didn’t have to go through what he and his family went through.
In March of 2007 Mr. Sclafani was able to procure a $20,000 donation from his employer ABB Inc., a technology-based provider of power and automation products, systems, solutions, and services, for the Thoracic Oncology Program (TOP) at Yale Cancer Center. The purpose of this generous donation was to help start a thoracic cancer tissue bank. The tissue bank is a collection of lung, thymoma, and other cancerous tissues from the chest-cavity and is a research tool researchers at Yale use to study how cancer cells behave. “The idea is that if we can bank enough tissue, scientists will be able to do the tests they need to do, and that it will open up doors for more treatment options,” Mr. Sclafani said. However, this donation was only the beginning. Most recently, Mr. Sclafani was able to obtain a second $20,000 donation from his employer ABB Inc., through its non-profit foundation, the ABB Foundation.
This second donation will continue the efforts that the first donation set into motion and will solidify the initiative. An infrastructure was developed to get the tissue banking process off the ground. This second donation will keep the tissue bank, and research, operating for another year. Dr. Daniel Boffa, Assistant Professor, Section of Thoracic Surgery at Yale, said, “The tissue bank program that Pat has started is a tremendous asset in cancer research. Not only does this program enable us to learn an incredible amount about each tumor, but the bank preserves this invaluable resource for future study. With this tissue bank, each patient’s individual battle with cancer can be brought together in a unified front against the disease. Unfortunately, very few medical centers are able to invest in this type of effort.” This donation will also assist in organizing and categorizing the tissue samples using data storage software called CaTissue. This is important if physicians need to draw a certain kind of tissue; they will know what they have and don’t have available. Yale’s tissue bank is also networked with different research facilities across the country. This allows researchers to look elsewhere for samples they might need for their research projects.
“I want to go after this disease because I do not like what it did to my family. I’m not just doing this for me personally, but also for the people after me that have to go through this experience. Any impact I can make in the research community is an impact on fighting this disease,” Mr. Sclafani said. He also said of his employer, ABB, that they are more then just an engineering conglomerate; they have concern for their employees and also the communities where they live and work. He said this gives him a great amount of pride in who he works for.
Mr. Sclafani’s relationship with Yale Cancer Center is a strong one. He plans to continue doing what he can to support the TOP and fighting the disease that nearly took his life. “I’m never walking away from Yale, because they never walked away from me. My relationship with the TOP and the new Smilow Cancer Hospital are etched in stone forever,” Mr. Sclafani said.