Griffin Cancer Research Building New Hub for Clinical and Community-Driven Research
Matthew Schlumbrecht, M.D., is a gynecologic oncologist and Assistant Director for Community Outreach at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. For more information about the new Griffin Cancer Research Building and the services offered, click here or visit the UHealth Collective.
MEET YOLANDA MINUS
After surviving breast cancer twice, Yolanda Minus learned she had endometrial cancer.
“I had never heard of that before. And so, I didn’t know what to look for,” Yolanda says.
She went to see Matthew Schlumbrecht, M.D., a gynecologic oncologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, who says cancer control starts with educating the community.
“If endometrial cancer is caught early, it’s survivable. In many cases, it can be curable,” says Dr. Schlumbrecht. “Our work in the community is crucial to understanding not only how we identify people who are going to be at risk for cancer, but how we can enhance our education and awareness campaigns and how we can make sure that their experience of cancer and of cancer treatment is as optimized as it can be.”
Yolanda is an important part of the research at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. As a three-time cancer survivor, she plays a critical role in getting the word out to the community about cancer awareness.
“She’s working with a multimedia producer to put together these short videos. And then Yolanda will review the videos once we have kind of a rough draft and she will let us know what we need to fix and that just really kind of helps refine it so then when we take it to the community, it’s going to be as impactful as it can be,” Dr. Schlumbrecht says.
“They are bringing something to the community to educate us. I’m excited about that,” says Yolanda.
Sylvester is leading the way in both clinical and community-driven research.
“The Griffin Cancer Research Building has become the central hub for research at Sylvester, and it was designed in a very intentional way. So, we have clinical space where people are getting novel treatments in clinical trials. There’s laboratory space where there is benchwork going on to understand the basic mechanisms of cancer etiology and pathogenesis. And then there’s space for population sciences where we have rooms to interview individuals or to hold focus groups,” Dr. Schlumbrecht says.
Today Yolanda is cancer free and recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary! Her message?
“A lot of times we’re private,” Yolanda says. “If I had to just let my fear overtake me, I wouldn’t have been here probably to celebrate 50 years of my husband and my beautiful family. If we could do and make a difference for ourselves and for others, it’s worth it.”