Stand Up To Cancer

Members of the Stand Up To Cancer executive leadership committee, Sue Schwartz and Rusty Robertson, joined Laura Ziskin and SU2C Management Committee member Dr. John Glaspy, M.D., M.P.H. at the annual meeting of thinkLA. thinkLA brought together leaders in business, media and advertising from across Southern California for this year's conference with the theme "Ideas That Inspire . . . "

The Stand Up To Cancer team is grateful to thinkLA and Tom Sebastian for the invitation and journalist Brian Unger for moderating the SU2C panel. Thanks, especially, to Brian Unger for sharing the story of the challenges his own family has faced with cancer. His openness and candor set the tone for the discussion.

The panel presentation moved the audience with the story of how Stand Up To Cancer's unique cancer research model was born. Laura and her team detailed for the audience the critical importance of breaking down the barriers between scientists and the institutions which fund them, to create a model for collaboration that will get new therapies to cancer patients more quickly. In the lively discussion, Dr. Glaspy compared the fight against cancer to the need to "storm the beach", again and again, armed with new weapons of treatments and therapies.

Dr. Glaspy, in humor, characterized SU2C as a "populist takeover of the cancer research establishment". While SU2C certainly is committed to reach across barriers and boundaries to help build a populist movement, of course it relies on the scientists and their discoveries to bring new treatments to patients, as quickly as possible.

When Rusty shared with the audience that reducing cancer cases by just 1% would save the country $5 billion, there was an audible gasp. "There's your economic stimulus package!" she told everyone.

In the spirit of collaboration, the SU2C team called upon the advertising and media community of Los Angeles to join with them and their partners to contribute to the cause and help build awareness for Stand Up To Cancer's efforts to end the devastation of cancer.