Expanding Access to High-Quality Cancer Care in Maine

Every year, over 9,000 people in Maine are diagnosed with cancer, the leading cause of death in our state. Like so many Mainers, Harold Alfond was diagnosed with cancer, and he battled the disease for many years. Mr. Alfond believed in Maine and chose to have his own cancer care in our state. The Foundation has since worked to bring this same opportunity to other Mainers by investing in a number of projects seeking to create the highest-quality system of patient-centered cancer care as close to home as possible.

One of the Foundation’s first major grants to support enhanced cancer care was in 2004 to MaineGeneral Medical Center to build the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, a regional state-of-the-art facility that consolidated MaineGeneral comprehensive oncology care programs. Since its opening in July 2007, the Center has provided thousands of patients in Central Maine access to and excellence in multi-specialty cancer treatment with an emphasis on care coordination. In 2023, the Foundation awarded MaineGeneral a second major grant to expand and renovate the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care.

In 2016, the Foundation awarded grant funds to The Jackson Laboratory to launch the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative, a statewide program providing personalized genomic testing services at no cost to Maine residents. This initiative has made precision medicine—previously only available at major cancer research hospitals in other states—available to the Maine oncology community.   

Most recently, the Foundation supported the launch of the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network, a partnership of MaineHealth and MaineGeneral Medical Center with the goal of achieving coordination and integration of high-quality oncology services throughout the MaineHealth and MaineGeneral Health service areas.

Through these grants, we continually strive to build upon and improve successful cancer care programs for the benefit of all Mainers.