The University of Hawaii Cancer Center recently received two separate anonymous donations totaling $100,000 that implored researchers to cure cancer.

While anonymous donations aren’t uncommon, these were particularly extraordinary because the checks were written from “God.”

“This donation, inspired by a higher calling, allows UH Cancer Center researchers to continue their committed fight against cancers that directly impact Hawaii’s ethnically diverse population,” said Dr. Jerris Hedges, dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine and interim director of the UH Cancer Center. “Generous gestures like this from residents in the state help us continue working towards the development of new lifesaving treatments and therapies.”

The donations came in two separate checks. The first, $20,000 check was designated to fund breast cancer research. The second check, issued 17 days later for $80,000, was marked to help “breast cancer & cure for all cancer.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Hawaii, with more than 1,000 women newly diagnosed with the disease each year. It is a major focus of research for scientists at the UH Cancer Center.

The donations will help fund cancer research including ongoing studies of intraductal carcinoma, or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a noninvasive form of breast cancer in which abnormal cells are contained in the milk ducts. As many as 50 percent of cases progress to invasive breast cancer if left untreated.

“Having the ability to identify individuals with a high versus low risk of developing invasive breast cancer will help to reduce the over-treatment of individuals with DCIS,” said Lenora Loo, an assistant professor in the UH Cancer Center’s Epidemiology Program. “In addition, data indicates that there may be racial and ethnic differences in the proportion of DCIS cases that progress to invasive breast cancer. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the value of including that data in our multiethnic population.”

The study aims to create a risk-prediction test to reduce over-treatment of DCIS and provide more personalized management of patients with breast cancer in Hawaii.