The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital held its 28th annual Cancer Survivor’s Day, a free event for those who have or have had cancer and their families, on Saturday, Sept. 9. Check out these photos!

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“My favorite part about Cancer Survivor’s Day is interacting with patients and their loved ones and celebrating their strength, hope and courage. Everything we do as providers is about this moment,” said Dr. Andrew Salner, medical director, Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital. “We started this event when we opened our Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center in 1990. Cancer Survivor’s Day highlights the continued success of this great center, the largest and most comprehensive in our region.”

Here’s more from Dr. Salner:

Q: Tell us about the day. What makes it unique? 
A: It’s really a special day for us, because 300 cancer patients and their family members will come downtown not for a patient visit or chemotherapy treatment or radiation treatment, but rather for a morning filled with inspiration, humor and hope. The patients and family members will have an opportunity to network with one another and we’ll also hear from many interesting speakers, including Helen Gray — Helen and her husband have left  such a wonderful legacy to our entire community. Our guest speaker this year will be Colin McEnroe, columnist and radio personality from The Hartford Courant and WNPR who will inspire  us with some comments as well.

Q: How has cancer treatment changed in the past 28 years?
A: We’re really making major evolutionary steps toward improving the results from cancer. Twenty-eight years ago when the Gray Cancer Center opened, our five-year survivorship from cancer was 50 percent. We treated patients with a less organized approach in terms of giving patients treatments more sequentially — perhaps surgery, then radiation and then chemotherapy. Now it’s a much more coordinated approach where an entire team of doctors with different specialties — that’s the patient’s multidisciplinary team — meet, surround the patient and develop a personalized treatment plan before treatment even begins. Then they support the patient and the family during their entire treatment course.

Q: And the outcomes are much better.
A: Today, 65 percent of patients will live five years after cancer therapy without a recurrence. The results continue to get better every year.

Learn more about the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital here