In 2007, the United States Congress declared May National Cancer Research Month in recognition of SU2C's sole scientific partner, the American Association for Cancer Research, and its focus on high quality, innovative cancer research. National Cancer Research Month is particularly important to us at SU2C because our mission is focused on cutting-edge, translational research. One hundred percent of the money you donate goes to funding our scientists' work. You might be wondering: what else is different about SU2C, and why is it important to invest in this type of research?
It can take up to six years of research to develop a new cancer drug, and another eight years to get that drug to patients. Meanwhile, 4,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the United States, and every 60 seconds another American dies of the disease.
Our goal is to get promising new treatments to the patients who need them as quickly as possible. So we focus on translational cancer research, which accelerates the progress of promising new treatments by creating a "feedback loop" between researchers in the lab and clinicians working with patients. And we provide funding for this research through multidisciplinary Dream Teams, which combine scientists, doctors, patient advocates and more, and through Innovative Research Grants, which support risky projects with big potential that might not get funding through ordinary channels.
As one of our Dream Team co-leaders, Dr. Joe Gray, put it, "I think that one of the things that Stand Up To Cancer has done is to really galvanize the entire community to think bigger and faster than we have in the past."
At SU2C, we like to talk about who it's "Up2" to end this disease - Up2 scientists, Up2 celebrities, Up2 sisters and husbands and children, Up2 all of us. This month, it's Up2 you to spread the word. Share SU2C's mission with your friends and family, and invest in the movement toward collaborative, accelerated cancer research with the potential to save lives now.
Redgrave, the acclaimed actress who was twice nominated for an Oscar and three times nominated for a Tony for her stage performances, passed away over the weekend at the age of 67 after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. Her children said, "She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives." We've launched a star in her honor; you can view and add a message to it here. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-mew-lynn-redgrave4-2010may04,0,3487386.story
Gerry Ahearn
This video out of Long Island looks at Ahearn, a high school student battling Ewing's sarcoma, and his friends, who have all shaved their heads to raise money for cancer research in his honor. Donations have poured in from around the community, taking his high school far beyond its fund-raising goal. "It's for a great cause, so I've got to be exuberant about it," said friend Eric Brill. "That mouthful of hair tasted great too." "Being able to know that people actually do care and recognize each other--it's a good thing, it's a good feeling," Ahearn said. http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=141317@wcbs.dayport.com
Sherri Arnold Graham
After facing breast cancer at the age of 35, Graham, now an eleven-year survivor of the disease, is "waging war" on breast cancer through her nonprofit Sherri Arnold Graham Foundation, which provides free mammograms for women who can't afford them. "We should be mad. We should be out there making noise against this disease," she said. "I was blessed with a strong support system and good medical care. I was able to get second opinions, to make sure that the treatment options were best for me. So many of the women I meet don't have either." http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/04/30/993189
Erik Martin
Erik, a 13-year-old Seattle boy fighting cancer, recently learned he has a secret identity as Electron Boy, a superhero who fights the powers of evil. Erik's day as a superhero, which began with Spider-Man asking for his help on an important mission and ended with Erik helping save a trapped worker from the clutches of Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy, was staged by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Afterward, Erik, whose mom called the day "beyond anything we thought it would be," said, "This is the best day of my life." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011740342_electronboy30m.html
As always, we invite you to share your stories with us in the comments below.
Dan Zenka is the vice president of communications for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and after helping fight the disease through his role with PCF, his battle recently became personal: he himself was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In his poignant blog, My New York Minute, Zenka documents his patient journey; in his first entry following diagnosis, he wrote:
"Since joining PCF, I have been issuing a simple call to men and families: Make Prostate Cancer Something to Talk About. Hence, the initiation of this blog. Through my treatment process I will share personal perspectives and insights--in no particular order--with the hope that it encourages discussion or provides some company to families who find themselves on a similar journey. Pick and choose what you need. Share in my therapeutic endeavor. This is no exclusive country club. We 1 out of 6 American men and our loved ones are all in this together."
The president's cancer panel has called for more regulation of environmental contaminants. In its 2008-2009 report, "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now," the panel says that environmental exposure to chemicals has not been adequately addressed and that the US needs a new policy agenda for environmental contaminants. "There remains a great deal to be done to identify the many existing but unrecognized environmental carcinogens and eliminate those that are known from our daily lives -- our workplaces, schools and homes," said the panel's chairman. "Even though we may currently lack irrefutable proof of harm, the increasing number of known or suspected environmental carcinogens compels us to action." http://www.plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=18546&channel=140
This week's big cancer news story is, of course, the approval of prostate cancer vaccine Provenge, which uses the body's immune system to fight the disease, offering an alternative to chemotherapy. Provenge is the first of these types of therapies to win FDA approval. In this great video Q and A, the Seattle Times interviews a professor from the University of Washington School of Medicine who helped oversee clinical trials for the drug and the CEO of Biotech Stock Research on Provenge's potential impact and what the new approval means for future therapies of this kind. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011785792_provengechat04.html
Two new studies indicate that noninvasive stool DNA testing can detect two types of colorectal precancers and could play a bigger role in prevention of the disease. Stool DNA testing has higher detection rates for curable colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps than fecal occult blood tests, which are currently widely used. "This study shows that cancer and precancer in IBD can be detected noninvasively," said one study's senior investigator. "The 90 percent detection rate by stool DNA testing is remarkable . . . Given the limitations of colonoscopies in detecting these lesions, stool DNA testing could play a complementary role to improve the effectiveness of cancer surveillance." http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/638618.html
According to new research out of the UK, there is no association between milk and kidney cancer. For some time, it's been thought that a relationship between the two might exist, based on epidemiological studies, but "when we used genotypes to verify this relationship, there was no corroboratory evidence," said the British study's lead author. "This does suggest that the basic findings may be subject to the kinds of biases and inaccuracies that often upset epidemiological research." Naturally, he added that research would be required "on a much larger scale in order to verify these initial findings." http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=638777
In other food-related news, researchers have found that a compound derived from broccoli may be able to kill breast cancer stem cells in mice. The compound is called sulforaphane, and researchers found that mice who were treated with it had fewer breast cancer stem cells than those who weren't. The treated mice also couldn't generate new tumors. Before you rush to the grocery store, however, you should know that the compound's effects have yet to be tested in humans - and the amount tested was bigger than the amount anyone could consume as part of their diet. http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/638779.html
That's all for this week, but I'll be back next Thursday with more!
"Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10
Framed verse given to my mother several years ago, found in the basement of my childhood home in Inverness, IL last December, two months prior to her death. Frame reads: Claudia--Submission to God
Three months have elapsed since I lost my mother, Claudia Fecarotta, 55 years young, mother of two, sister of ten, loving wife to my father, Thomas, Jr., friend to hundreds, and as close to a mother-in-law as one could get to Angela LaMonica, my fiancee. The original goal was to get her to our wedding (this May--5/22) when she started chemotherapy for lung cancer last fall. Then the goal was adjusted to get her to spring, when just three months into treatment the cancer had spread to her bones. Neither goal was realized.
She walked into her kitchen on a sunny, late-summer day last August, and complained of discomfort in her chest. I was visiting that weekend. The discomfort was more of a nuisance to her--she thought maybe she had worked too hard in her garden or had an allergic reaction. It's a memory that's inexhaustible now. Many are from the last eight months.
When she was diagnosed with Stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer at Loyola University (Cardinal Bernadin Cancer Center), it was roughly one month after her original complaint of discomfort in her chest. I still wonder today if a more efficient screening test existed, maybe her life could have been saved--or at worst, prolonged.
She was told a few days after diagnosis last September that she was lucky to have any symptoms at all. The luck ended there for her--and us--as she passed away just five months later and left people behind who relied on her, savored her wit, rejoiced in her spirit, love her.
Our Stand
Now that she has been gone three months, it's now time to reflect on my mother's life, her disease, and the outlook for lung cancer. My mother quit smoking well over decade ago, and developed what her oncologist termed light-to-non-smoker's lung cancer.
Living in Chicago, I would commute to Loyola almost every day to see her smiling face greet me amidst all her pain. I remember the nights driving home in October during her aggressive chemotherapy and radiation regimen (a 40-day stint), watching the sun set over the Chicago skyline and the pink lights start to illuminate the Willis/Sears Tower. It was breast cancer awareness month, and people were greatly aware.
It made me cringe then, because breast cancer was (and still is) receiving more funding from the NCI and ACS than lung cancer, despite the alarming number of cases and deaths of lung cancer, including thousands of deaths among non-smokers and light smokers like my mother. But I look at the funding disparity in a different light now. You cannot fight a battle of perceptions. It's remarkable that we are saving the lives of those diagnosed with breast cancer, a feat only possible by advanced treatments and proper funding, funding that one day will be directed toward lung cancer.
In order to stand up to lung cancer, we must be made aware of the century-long deceit of the tobacco industry, an empire that has masked its entire history behind powerful people in charge of where our cancer research money is spent. We have made strides in smoking bans and anti-smoking campaigns for our children, but the CDC notes that smoking rates have remained virtually the same among adults.
With SU2C, we are pleased to find an organization that is transparent with how donated money is divided into dream teams, that opens doors to all cancer research avenues, and has the ultimate goal beating--and preventing--all types of cancer.
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My mother used chemotherapy drugs that were administered to patients as early as 1978. When these treatments failed, she began using Tarceva, a targeted lung cancer therapy that, if effectively matched with the patient's specific molecular traits, could reverse progress of the rapidly dividing cancer cells. Unfortunately for her, she did not have this specific mutation, and there were no other answers for her. All that was left was the culmination of weeks of aggressive chemotherapy, the inability to move her right arm from possible neurotoxicity, the inability to eat and hold down food, the inability to live the way she wanted to. When she no longer could fight, we brought her home near the end of winter. It was sunny for five straight days prior to her death, a first glimpse of spring and a real rarity in Chicago. She became increasingly unaware of her surroundings up until her final days, but one of my favorite memories is watching her wake up one morning, turn to me and say: "That's five."
As a family, we continue to champion my mom in many ways, who was greatly revered by us and, in my opinion, deserved a better chance at fighting her lung cancer. Below are notes from some of her nieces and nephews, who wrote of fond memories of their aunt:
I remember how Aunt Claudia always asked how I was doing. She always cared greatly about how people were feeling. Aunt Claudia always made everyone feel loved. -Paul
I remember that Aunt Claudia was a good hugger. -Timothy
I remember how thoughtful Aunt Claudia was when I broke my arm. She called my mom and asked if I liked necklaces. When my mom said that I did she gave me the most beautiful necklace with little wooden tigers and elephants. I still have them today. And I always think of her when I wear them--Jackie
I remember her as a genuinely kind person. She was an aunt I enjoyed talking with, an aunt I liked to see. She always gave me a hug and asked how I was doing, and she really did want to know the answer. She threw really great parties. She was never, ever in your face. Aunt Claudia was a sweet, caring person, and I will miss her. She was an aunt I wish I could have seen more often
-Claudia
--Tom Fecarotta
Tom and Angie have started an SU2C Team, "Not In Vain," in Claudia's memory. You can join their team here, or start an SU2C Team of your own here.
My mother Laura is strong and accomplished and admired and loved by the people around her--by me, first and foremost. So many things about her are inspiring that it is assumed she is immune to emotional frailty. Hardly anyone notices that she has plenty of insecurities that she is often afraid, that she can even, on occasion, luxuriate in fear.
It's not noticeable to most people, which is just as well, but of course most people are not me. Which is to say that most people are not Laura's daughter. It's different for me, because I know. I can see: She is quietly frantic and defeated just before she gets up to speak in public. She absolutely knows that a project at work is facing certain failure. She worries often that her cancer will not stay contained.
My mother is not fearless--she's something much more important and much more inspiring: My mother is vibrantly relentless. She uses her fear, not to close off, but to open herself up further to the world. To inspire people when she's speaking in public, to approach every problem at work with a solution and the attitude that no problem (however great) is unsolvable, to overcome the feeling of threat to her sense of self, to her life itself by tackling her own cancer with the same 'can do' attitude. She embraces the fears that come with any cancer diagnosis by turning the power of fear against its source. As we all joked when she was first diagnosed, "Cancer f***ed with the wrong person."
My mother, Margot, was my best friend and my greatest role model. I lost her over 20 years ago to ovarian cancer. For 18 months, I watched her struggle to try and defeat this horrible disease. I watched the pain, the false hopes, the humiliation - and I watched as the cancer ate away at her body. My mother's will to live could not save her, and no amount of love or positive thinking could prevent her death.
At that time, I decided that the only way to make sense of this tragedy and the only way to honor my mother's memory was to help support scientific research that would hopefully eradicate this disease. Too many of our mothers are lost to cancer every day and I could not sit back and watch as others suffered in the same way as my mother had. And so I began my journey as a Cancer Advocate.
I hate cancer. I hate it like I've never hated anything in my life. It causes incredible pain and suffering and does not discriminate. It knows no class barriers; it is not conscious of race, religion or gender.
Read the rest of Sherry Lansing's blog at the Huffington Post.
Just like on The Flintstones, when we married men get together, we often complain and groan about the mother-in-law, if for nothing else, than it's a classic and never-ending source of comedy. As mother-in-laws go, I did well. Mine loves sports, can dig into a rack of baby back ribs like nobody's business, and plays a mean game of racquetball. The only thing that scares me about Sandy Shuster is her strange fascination with procedural crime shows and murder mystery novels, which leaves me to suspect she is somehow secretly plotting my death. CSI obsession aside, my mother-in-law, is very kind and unassuming most of the time-- unless you forget to make her "cuppa tea" or dare interrupt her during an Eagles game, then she turns into Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction and strikes down upon thee with "great vengeance and furious anger."
Most relationships with in-laws, no matter how great, probably wouldn't exist if not for marriage, and therefore, love and respect build over time (if at all). I realized I loved my mother-in-law, when she was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer. I should have felt love sooner-- but you don't know how much you love something or someone until you're faced with the prospect of losing it.
When I'm asked what I remember most about my mother--I always find that my answer stays the same. She cared about people from the bottom of her heart and always put others first. Her selflessness was at the core of who she was. She was the kindest person I've ever met, with a genuine concern and regard for the well being of others.
When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, she didn't tell me or the rest of our family and friends. She played down her condition so as not to worry us, but in turn, we found out at a point in which there was nothing we could do for her. It was terminal and we were left helpless, hopeless and completely devastated at what was ahead--our future without her as she was being robbed from us by this thief of a disease. She was the cornerstone of our family, the person who meant the most to all of us, and soon she would no longer be there guiding and championing us as our lives unfolded. I wasn't sure how I was going to live in the world after she was gone. I was guilt-ridden over not having been able to do something more, over not having been able to save my mother.
Seeing my mother die, experiencing the stages of cancer that drained her of life, made me come face to face with my own mortality. And so I knew I needed to continue experiencing life for everything that it was and finding its beauty in my own children. My mother believed every day should be seized and life was provided to us to be lived to its fullest. She loved being able to say, "I did that," or "I've been there." She was never shy in experiencing new things.
Read the rest of Terrence Howard's blog at the Huffington Post.
I remember the day that I realized that my mother was not 28 years old. I was outside one spring night, running down the stone fence outside the Coughlin's house. The fence dead-ended in a pokey hedge that, when jumped correctly, landed you on the other side in a heap, two painful feet lower than you started. If you jumped it wrong, you got all tied up in the bush. It was a lose-lose situation, and I did it every time I could.
On one particularly creative go, after I hit the bush and the ground in the same jump, Mrs. Coughlin came out to patch me up. She was young and pretty, like my mom. I'm not sure how we got on the subject.
"How old is your mom?" she asked.
"28," I said.
"Really? And how old are your brothers and sisters?"
I thought for a second. "Jimmy is 17, and Carolyn is 24 and Linda is one year younger."
"So then your mom can't be 28, honey."
She smirked, I scowled. I know for sure that I scowled because I remember the new band-aid on my forehead got all pinched up. It was 1977, and I was probably the only kid in elementary school with a mom in her mid-40s. She'd been telling me she was 28 every year for as long as I could remember. Why? As the youngest of four, I instantly assumed I was being teased: how long could they sell the baby on this ruse? Or, maybe, some part of it was to ward off the neighborhood judges - of Mom and of me.
I will never know why my mom did the things she did because I never really knew her at all. It was not for lack of trying. My mother was a private island. Even if the rough sea between us allowed my little boat to sail over, the jagged coastline would crush any boats that tried to run ashore. My mother was full of pride, and full of fear.
Maybe something happens when you turn 40, or maybe it's when you first look down your belly at your own precious little babe. I imagine there is point for every woman where she starts to understand versus underestimate her mother and the choices she made. One unfathomable decision my mother made was to go through her final days alone. It was almost exactly Mother's Day 2007 when the brain tumor overcame her lucidity. Ever proud, she did not want us to see her so attenuated. It's a decision I understand even less now than I did in the days she made it, over and over again, as she refused my company while the brain cancer took its three months to kill her.
I will never know what it must have been like in 1968 for my mom to be 36 years old and pregnant. In 2010 as a 42-year-old single mom, I feel more passe than judged or brave. My daughter, Isabella, was born on November 4th, 2009. She too will never know my mother.
It's Mother's Day again, only now I can't help but dream that the love of this beautiful little baby would have finally broken the ice that surrounded Marion DiBiase for the 38 years that I knew her. There's so much I would like to say to my mom now, so much I'd like to ask her. We would laugh and swap baby stories. As if somehow the ground on the other side of the hedge would suddenly reveal itself to be two feet taller.
On this Mother's Day, let us remember all those moms we've lost and all those in the fight. One out of every three women is affected by cancer. Today we stand up in memory of all those moms we've lost, and all those moms who are in the fight against this vicious disease. Launch a star in memory of someone you love here.
My mother is a survivor. A beautiful and brave fighter.
When she was diagnosed with lymphoma over a decade ago, she decided she wasn't going to think about it too much, she was just going to do what she had to do to live her life well. She sought out - and found - the best medical care available for her disease, and in that search we found a brilliant physician and, it turns out, a lifelong friend in Dr. Lee Nadler at Dana-Farber in Boston.
My mother had chemotherapy when she was in her early 80s. She had radiation a few years later. Recently she has gone through two cycles of Rituxan. She is 87 years old. She never complains and she doesn't feel sorry for herself. She plays cards with her friends twice a week and is still so beautiful she turns heads when she walks into any room.
My mother inspires me each and every day. She inspired me to get together with some of my dearest and closest friends and to work with them to start Stand Up to Cancer. None of us will stop until we've seen real breakthroughs - for our mothers, our fathers, our sisters and brothers, our children and partners and most cherished friends.
Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful, extraordinary Mother Anita Simon, and to those of you who no longer have their Mothers around, know that mine always has extra hugs available. She is why I continue to Stand Up to Cancer.
On this Mother's Day, let us remember all those moms we've lost and all those in the fight. One out of every three women is affected by cancer. Today we stand up in memory of all those moms we've lost, and all those moms who are in the fight against this vicious disease. Launch a star in memory of someone you love here.
Seventeen years ago my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. My sister and I were with her. Ready to give support and to lend our ears, we accompanied our mother to a doctor's appointment. However, I could never have imagined what I was about to hear. "What the (bleep) is Multiple Myeloma?" we asked. Yet my mother knew. Still, she didn't cry, not one damn tear. She left the tears for the rest of the family to shed. The day she learned of her incurable cancer my mother remained strong and self-contained. She always had been and always would be. The doctor delivered the sentence to us that very day . . . six to nine months to live. However, Mom didn't give a damn what the doctors said. I believe she made a pact with herself that day. While she had not always been able to live her life the way she envisioned, she was now determined to end her life when and how she chose. My mom fought hard and lived three years fighting her cancer every day. In the end, she controlled her life and her death.
Seventeen years ago, you couldn't just Google Multiple Myeloma. So I went old-school and visited library after library, learning whatever I could. What I discovered was not encouraging. In fact, it sucked. Yet it never brought Mom down. During her three-year struggle, I would hear her talking to herself in the mirror many mornings. She would often repeat, "What am I going to do? I didn't choose this, but here I am. So I will put one foot in front of the other and I will walk out into the day and make the most of it." She absolutely did - every single day.
My mom was a remarkable woman. In the 1940s, she attended Ann Arbor Medical School while studying to become a doctor. However, when her mother died of cancer she left school to take care of her father and brother before he left to fight in WWll. While taking care of them, she went on to graduate from Purdue University with a degree in medical research. Despite not quite reaching her goal of becoming an MD, her accomplishments were great. She excelled in her medical research career until she chose to give it up in order to raise her five children.
In the end, my strong and fearless mother passed away from kidney failure that was attributed to her fight with cancer. She made the ultimate decision not to go through dialysis. Her medical knowledge allowed for her to make the decisions regarding when and how she wanted to go. She knew that by refusing that last and final stage of treatment she could have full control of her body and die peacefully. I brought her home on my 40th birthday and said my goodbyes to my strong and fearless mother, Maeta Rosengard.
It is in her memory that I stand up to cancer.
On this Mother's Day, let us remember all those moms we've lost and all those in the fight. One out of every three women is affected by cancer. Today we stand up in memory of all those moms we've lost, and all those moms who are in the fight against this vicious disease. Launch a star in memory of someone you love here.
On September 1, 2001, I picked my mother up at the airport in LA. Those were still the days before airport security, meeting at the gates, and bringing water on a plane from your house. When my mother walked off the plane, I said, "Mom, you really don't look good," and she replied in her inimitable style, "Well, thanks a lot!"
I said, "No, I mean, have you seen your doctor?" She went on about her doctor of 30 years and how each week as she complained about heaviness in her chest, he just kept telling her: "Your x-rays show you have COPD and if you have heaviness in the chest-- you just must be depressed. Here are some anti-depressants and another inhaler . . . go enjoy your daughter in LA."
The next morning she couldn't eat and felt very weak. I went to the computer to look up COPD and read the symptoms. They didn't seem right, so I called her doctor. He continued, "She is just depressed." I told him, "She is not eating. She is very weak. Who wouldn't be depressed?"
Frustrated, I connected with my doctor and his pulmonary specialist. On the day of her first appointment, she collapsed on the landing of the stairs to my house. I called the EMTs, although she pleaded with me to not have her go in an ambulance. But we needed help, so an ambulance it was.
To my doctor's amazement, that afternoon my mother had her first PET scan EVER!! This was a woman who never even had a cold. She never wanted to question the doctor she had for 30 years, as no one of her generation did.
On September 5, 2001, my doctor, whom I adore and had become very close to in the last years, called and told me he was coming to my home. I knew it wasn't good news. I asked him to prepare me. "Rusty, your mother has late stage lung cancer," he said. I couldn't say anything to her. She looked at me and knew it was not good news. The doctor arrived and said, "Ruth, you have a 10 centimeter lung tumor under the breast bone and it is incurable. You have about two months to live." There was silence, and he asked, "Do you have any questions?" She sighed and said, "Well, I really was expecting this news." And then my mother moved on. "I would like to tell you about my children." She began to speak about my brothers and me in the face of the worst news of her life.
My mother never went home. The four Sundays, not eight, that I was expecting her to live were filled with me getting her hair done, nails done, facials, and playing Dean Martin music. The family, children and grandchildren all flew in at different times. The Jewish holidays came and went. And then came September 11th, and we spent the next week together watching the shock around the world after two planes hit the World Trade Center. It seemed to me like everything was dying. Around the end of September, her decline was coming very fast.
As the hospice nurses worked around the clock, I sat with her and we talked and talked. She said, "You know something told me to come here to LA." It was then I told her I was planning to drop her off in Dallas and fly to New York on September 10th. If my mother hadn't been with me, I would have been in NY on Sept 11th, for an early morning appointment with my client, American Express. I always took the escalators up and the crosswalk across the Trade Center to the AMEX offices. As I held her in my arms, we both thought, what might have happened to me that fateful morning if she hadn't discovered her tumor? She was positive through it all. In our last conversation, she said that being with me through this was "an experience she would not forget, even in heaven."
The next three days, my mother fell silent as the lung cancer filled her body. We never spoke again. On October 5 at 12:35 AM, as soon as I walked out of the room, my mother passed. I guess she didn't want to go while I was in the room.
For years, September 5th had become a dreaded day for me . . . it was the day I found out my mother had weeks to live. When she died, I pledged to do everything possible to not let someone else die so quickly in the arms of their daughter or son. I would try to make a difference with this horrible disease that takes one person a minute in this country.
On September 5, 2008, my day of sadness became a day of joy. On that day, Stand Up To Cancer was born. Stand Up To Cancer's first television show was on all three networks and a group of my now best friends and I helped raise a lot of money for cancer research. And I do believe my mother had a hand in that!!! I feel her smiling down on me everyday.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I am happy. Thank you for giving me the gift to help make a difference and hopefully save someone else's mom from dying too soon.
A 29-year-old fighting colon cancer, White has been undergoing treatment for over three years. Now, thanks to donations from friends and members of the Florida community where she lives, she's traveling everywhere she's ever wanted to go: an ocean cruise, the Grand Canyon, and hopefully New York City, to fulfill her childhood dream of holding up a poster in the background of the Today Show. "Once they read [her story], it's affected a lot of people because she is so young," said a former coworker, who donated her yearly bonus to the cause. Meanwhile, White has already planned what she wants her poster to say when she stands outside the Today Show: "Jen Rocks." http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2010/05/07/woman-fights-for-life-to-the-end.html
Ray Johnston
After an open tryout landed him a spot with the Dallas Mavericks in 2004, Johnston, 31, thought all his dreams had come through. Three months later, however, his leukemia diagnosis ended his short NBA career. Now in remission, Johnston has a new passion: the guitar. His Ray Johnston band recently toured the country promoting their new CD "Sweet Tooth." "Proverbs 17:22 captures it perfectly," Johnston says of his optimistic attitude. "It says, 'A cheerful heart is good medicine to the soul, a down cast spirit dries up the bones.'" http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Cancer-Survivor-Finds-New-Dream-in-Music-93245624.html
Malcolm Sutherland-Foggio
After being diagnosed with an aggressive bone cancer at the age of 10, Malcolm decided to fight back. First he recorded a six-minute video about his disease and treatment called "One in 320," because one child in 320 faces cancer in the US; then he led a bike-a-thon to raise money for pediatric cancer research. Meanwhile, his friends help out any way they can - most recently, some of them raised $1,000 for cancer research through a bake sale. One of his friends said that learning his friend had cancer scared him, but that "friendships matter, and you just keep going.'' http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100509/COMMUNITIES/100508045/1005/NEWS01/Cancer-survivor--12--leads-bike-a-thon-for-pediatric-cancer
Tamika Poe
After facing choriocarcenoma, cancer of the uterus and overies, in 1987, Poe was told she'd never have children again. But after a partial hysterectomy, several surgeries, chemotherapy and other treatments, three years later she found herself pregnant again. "After they did the tumor removal, they removed half my left tube, half my left ovary, all my right tube and right ovary," she said. "They told me I could never have kids again." Today, Poe's youngest is 19, and her cancer has been in remission for almost two decades. She's a volunteer for her country's Relay For Life, and says she looks forward to many more Mother's Days with her kids. http://adaeveningnews.com/local/x334276936/Survivor-celebrates-miracle-motherhood
As always, we welcome you to share your stories with us in the comments below.
According to a new study in the journal Cancer, the price tag associated with the disease in the US has climbed from $25 billion to more than $48 billion in the last 18 years. The study says advances in cancer treatment aren't the culprit - instead, it's a rise in the number of total cancer cases, which may be a result of our population aging, as older people tend to get cancer at higher rates. However, the study's authors note that cancer still accounts for just 5% of total US medical costs, and that proportion has not changed in the last few decades. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5irxd94N2Maqjt6E3z3XjCJ5uwvtwD9FJOA8G2
Four US hospitals are currently conducting trials in the use of a fluorescent compound to better treat glioma, the most common form of brain tumor. Even with aggressive treatment, the average life expectancy for a patient with a glioma is only 13 months; but promising results from clinical trials suggest that the compound, called 5-aminolevulinic acid, might change that. It works by illuminating brain cancer cells, making them easier for surgeons to remove. Said the director of one hospital's neurosurgical oncology unit, "It turns out that the stuff that looks perfectly normal under the surgical microscope is tumor. We didn't know that until we had the drug." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/10/earlyshow/health/main6470978.shtml
New research indicates that all forms of prostate cancer therapy have the potential to impact men's quality of life. According to a report in the Journal of Urology, surgery, radiation and even hormone-blocking drugs can all result in long-term effects on sexual and urinary function. But when it came to men's ratings of their overall quality of life, none of the prostate cancer treatments seemed to have a significant impact: "All treatment types adversely impact urinary and sexual function but do not appear to significantly impact the overall sense of well-being," the researchers said. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64B5EA20100512
A new study out of UC San Francisco aims to identify ways to better predict breast cancer risk following removal of a ductal carcinoma in situ - the earliest form of the disease. Among 1,200 women who had a DCIS removed, researchers found that those occurrences detected by palpation, i.e. those that were obvious to the touch, were far more likely to be predecessors of invasive, spreading cancer. Cancers with three particular chemical marks on their surfaces were also found to be dangerous, and it may be possible to develop a diagnostic test based on these three proteins to determine which DCIS occurrences are most likely to turn into invasive breast cancer. http://www.healthkey.com/a-z/cancer/sns-health-predicting-breast-cancer-risk,0,7380772.story
Finally, I'm as drawn as the next girl to cancer news about particular foods or beverages. As this fantastic editorial in the Guardian notes, cancer scare headlines are a hundred-year-old tradition, and it can be overwhelming trying to keep up with what's healthy and what's not. (Does this quote from a 1927 newspaper article sound familiar? "It would be difficult to think of any article of diet which has not, at one time or another, been blamed as a cancer-producing substance. The list includes tea, coffee, cocoa, white bread - and also brown bread - cheese, butter, eggs, meat, fish, and poultry." 1927. Seriously.) The author points out, however, that what we do know is powerful: that excess body fat, drinking too much alcohol and eating red and processed meats all increase cancer risk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/13/cancer-scare-headlines-not-new
That's all for this week, but I'll be back next Thursday with more!
Thank you for everything you are doing to fight cancer. Your vision of a collaborative and results-driven approach is the most compelling and inspiring I have ever heard. "We are now competing against the disease, instead of against each other." Brilliant.
John Moores, Jeff Moorad and I, along with the entire Padres organization, are honored to be associated with SU2C, and we're very excited about all of the activities to support the effort. Our executive team members Laura Broderick and Sue Botos have been working hard with many other members of the Padres organization to make sure we maximize the opportunity to raise money and awareness for SU2C. As you may know, one of the Padres family, Dave Roberts, was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in March. Dave and his wife Tricia are an inspiration to all of us at the Padres. Their determination and positive attitudes have affected us all.
I also wanted to share a personal story. My cousin Barb Leger is a 42-year-old married mother of two teenagers. She's like a sister to me. Barb was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell cancer in September of 2007. She was told that she had "months" to live. After 16 rounds of chemo and 5 rounds of radiation, Barb has now made it thirty-one of those "months." Unfortunately, after responding negatively to a recent round of chemo, she was hospitalized, unable to speak or see. Thankfully, she woke up on Mother's Day, and was able to say hello to her husband and two kids, her parents, my mom, and my sister. She will keep fighting and surprising her doctors.
Barb's name and Dave and Tricia Roberts' names will be among the thousands of names on the outfield wall at Petco Park when it becomes a tribute to the many people and families that have been affected by cancer. It will also be a tribute to Major League Baseball and how Commissioner Selig led the way for us to get involved. Mostly, it will be a tribute to you, your vision, and your efforts to make a difference and fight this disease in a tangible way.
I look forward to the launch of our association in San Diego.
This week we celebrate SU2C's second anniversary. Thanks to your generous donations and incredible support, we have all come a long way in the short two years since the launch.
The progress SU2C has made in the past year alone is exciting and encouraging: in May of 2009, $73.6 million in funding was awarded to five scientist Dream Teams, and in December $9.7 million was awarded to 13 Innovative Research Grant projects; 100% of the money you've donated goes directly to cancer research. Toby Keith and the Academy of Country Music's Lifting Lives Foundation joined SU2C to help spread its message; you can download Toby Keith's live ACM performance of "Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)" at iTunes, with all proceeds benefitting SU2C. We also launched a fantastic new partnership with the San Diego Padres, who have set a goal of raising $500,000 for SU2C during the 2010 season. And this month brought the announcement of the next telecast on September 10th, where SU2C will continue to broaden public support of its mission: quickly translating innovation in the lab into groundbreaking treatments that can help patients now - and save lives.
SU2C's accomplishments to date have been incredible, but with a foe like cancer, which strikes one in two men and one in three women, there's always more work to be done. You can help SU2C celebrate the beginning of another exciting year by continuing to invest in SU2C, by joining on Facebook and Twitter, or by launching a star or starting an SU2C Team in honor of someone you love.
Thank you, as always for being a part of SU2C. Please help get others involved in the fight against cancer: share this video about why it's so important to Stand Up To Cancer.
Bucher is one of 46 moms from across the country who will shave their heads this September to raise money for and awareness of pediatric cancer research. Bucher lost her daughter to neuroblastoma, with which she was diagnosed at the age of 2. "We're trying to raise one million dollars for the St. Baldricks's foundation," Bucher explains. The 46 moms - 46 because that's the number of children who are diagnosed every day with cancer - came together through People Against Childhood Cancer and call themselves the 46 Mommas; you can learn more about their efforts here. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/46_Mommas_Shave_for_the_Brave_Philadelphia.html
Dana Jennings
It's been a while since we checked in with Dana Jennings, who blogs periodically about his battle with prostate cancer at the NYT's Well Blog. In his most recent post, he discusses the discovery that "more than anything, cancer is about stories and friendships," recalling a weekend spent with an old friend now facing cancer as well. "In telling our cancer stories, by refusing to be silent, by declining to hide behind stoicism, we take ownership of them," he writes. "[We] maybe even have a chance to understand them. They're our stories, and we need to insist on that fact." http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/the-friendship-of-cancer/
Bill Cash
In 2008, Cash was diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer and given just 14 months to live after an operation to remove the tumor. Five days after surgery, he began working out again, and three months later, he had already participated in two 5K races; four days after finishing a year-long course of radiation and chemotherapy, he danced at his daughter's wedding. In September 2009, an MRI showed no traces of cancer. "You can't just rely on doctors or anyone else," he says. "You have to do some things for yourself." http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2010/05/viewpoints_this_story_of_survi.html
Melissa Schultz
In a moving piece for the Dallas Morning News, Schultz writes about her experience with breast cancer, beginning with the morning she discovered a lump in the shower. Wondering about the power of intuition - what exactly was it that led her to check her breast on that particular day? - Schultz talks with Harvard's Dr. Jerome Groopman and others about trusting in a patient's feelings about his or her own health. "Whatever guided me that day in the shower, I listened, and it saved my life," she says. "The bonus in the searching is the sense of peace I emerged with - of feeling the universe offers more than meets the eye." http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/healthyliving2/stories/DN-canceressay_05016gd.ART.State.Bulldog.2d7ffd0.html
As always, we welcome you to share your stories in the comments below.
Two years ago, our historic September 5, 2008 fundraising telecast brought all three major networks - CBS, ABC and NBC - together in an unprecedented collaboration. Today we are very excited to announce that we're returning to primetime on September 10th to continue broadening public support for our mission of funding groundbreaking, collaborative cancer research. This morning, network evening news anchors Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams appeared on CBS' "The Early Show," ABC's "Good Morning America," and NBC's "Today Show" to talk about the upcoming telecast and the progress SU2C has made in the two years since our launch. Check out the clips below.
According to research released on Tuesday, a drug called iloprost may work to prevent lung cancer in those who have quit smoking. The drug, which is usually used to treat pulmonary hypertension, scleroderma and Raynaud's phenomenon, showed promise for preventing lung cancer in former smokers in a phase II clinical trial. "Oral iloprost significantly improves endobronchial dysplasia in former smokers and deserves further study to determine if it can prevent the development of lung cancer," the researchers concluded. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1867856420100518
Meanwhile, a new study disputes the link previously made between a high-carbohydrate diet and an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. Researchers from the NCI have found that carbohydrate intake might be a consequence, rather than a cause, of the disease; because fatty foods can create digestive issues, patients with the stomach problems that generally precede pancreatic cancer might be replacing some of the fat in their diets with carbs, which are easier to process. The finding could help scientists better understand inconsistent results from earlier studies. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64J60020100520
Fresh research in this month's issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology indicates that men who suffer from asthma or eczema may experience a lower risk of developing some of the most common types of cancer. These allergic conditions result from having a hyper-reactive immune system, which may bolster the body's ability to ward off other diseases: "Allergic conditions . . . might enhance the body's ability to remove malignant (cancer) cells, which might in turn lower cancer risk," said the article's lead author. "In our study, men with asthma had lower odds of getting stomach cancer and those with eczema had lower odds of developing lung cancer, when compared to men who did not have these conditions." http://www.stlamerican.com/articles/2010/05/20/your_health_matters/health_news/health03.txt
Researchers at UConn have developed a new technique for detecting biomarker proteins associated with several types of oral cancer, including head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Their technique detects bloodstream levels of the protein with record sensitivity, levels that increase before tumors even begin to form. The next step, the researchers say, is creating an automated system that can detect these biomarkers at the point of care, enabling doctors to detect cancers early or even head them off at the pass before a tumor has a chance to form. http://today.uchc.edu/features/2010/may10/cancer.html
Finally, the long-awaited results of the first long-term study on cell phones and cancer came out Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology. But according to the director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which helped to coordinate the study, the results aren't conclusive: although overall there's no clear connection between cell phone use and cancer, among the 10% of the 12,000 participants who used their phones most often and for the longest periods of time - 30 minutes a day or more over 10 years or more - had a substantially higher risk than those who didn't use a phone at all. And those who used cell phones infrequently actually showed a lower risk of developing some brain tumors than people who only used landlines. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1989740,00.html
That's all for this week, but I'll be back next Thursday with more!
Last Friday, we announced our new partnership with the San Diego Padres, who have set a goal to raise an incredible $500,000 for SU2C during the 2010 season through donations from the Padres Foundation, players, corporate partners and fans. The Padres have set up "signing walls" at the Home Plate and East Village entrances to PETCO Park; fans will be encouraged to sign the walls in honor of loved ones impacted by cancer, and during the final homestand of the season, the honorary walls will replace the outfield wall at PETCO.
Later that day, the Padres faced the Dodgers, and Ray Liotta, who had earlier shared the story of his mom's battle against cancer, threw out the first pitch--barefoot, a nod to his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams."
Photo courtesy of Shana Siler
You can read more about the new partnership here, and check out this video of the Padres signing the wall and sharing why they stand up:
As most back stories to songs do, this one begins with a woman. In this case, it's the powerful force of nature known as Laura Ziskin - not just a cancer survivor, but a cancer fighter. When she's not making movies about superheroes, she's off being one with her Stand Up To Cancer cohorts. I met Laura at an event about a year or so ago, and we connected immediately. I am drawn by "big idea" people, who attempt such seemingly impossible feats with such gusto and vigor you are confident they will succeed. So one big idea person met another big idea person and we started talking music and cancer.
Laura mentioned she was looking for an anthem for Stand Up To Cancer - something that would inspire conviction but also acknowledge all the loss this disease has caused. I went home that night thinking about the friends and family whose lives have been lost to this vicious disease. And I thought a lot about the mission of Stand Up To Cancer, the possibilities of doctors and scientists working together, and whether a cure would happen in my lifetime. I thought of Laura's tenacity and how she is unafraid to face cancer. I also thought about how the word cancer is so scary people hardly want to say it, let alone sing it. I thought if we can't speak it, how are we to defeat it? So it was important for me to put the word "cancer" in the chorus. I wanted people to confront the word in the song. Several of my friends and fellow musicians have suggested I remove it. But I thought, that's the whole point. We have got to say it - as painful as it is. We have got to say it.
I was writing with my dear friend, violin virtuoso Ann Marie Calhoun, at the time. The next morning we started sketching out the song. Ann Marie began playing an inspiring and hopeful melody and I gently began laying in the lyrics . . . "You've got a lot living up to do/You've got a lot of loving left in you." In the song the present is juxtaposed against the future. And that is cancer in a nutshell. It makes things finite. If you are diagnosed, it makes you evaluate your present and question the future. What have you done with your life? What will you do with your remaining days? And the song went from there.
Ann Marie and I called Laura after we recorded the demo. She asked us to come down and play it for a bunch of doctors and scientists on their advisory board. On a whim, Ann Marie and I grabbed our demo and a little boom box and headed to a hotel meeting room. Now, I have played in front of hundreds of thousands of people before. But this was debuting a song in front of a very smart crowd that lives and breathes cancer every day. I will admit I was kind of nervous. I had to sing this word in front of them. I had to sing their word in front of them. And we started. All I can say is something magical happened in that performance. By the end of the song, doctors and scientists were standing and singing the chorus. It must of have been quite a release for them.
Eventually, I asked Joss Stone to help me sing the song and record it for a series of Stand Up To Cancer PSAs. Joss' voice is so powerful and soulful-- it gave the song and the word a new dimension. When she sings, it is defiance. When Ann Marie plays, it is elegiac and at times mournful. That is the dichotomy of the 12 million cancer survivors - fighting in spite of your fears.
I wrote this song not just for me, not just for Stand Up To Cancer, not just for the scientists, but for you - your mother or brother or anyone afflicted with this terrible disease. We want to collect hundreds, maybe thousands of voices singing this song and this chorus. Below is an mp3 of the song and the lyrics. Take it and make it your own. Record it, and stand up for those you've loved, those you've lost or those in the fight. Stand Up To Cancer.
Mark Herzlich
Herzlich, an All-American linebacker from Boston College, spent last year undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for Ewing sarcoma. Now, as he prepares to return to the field in BC's opening game this September, he shares his story at fundraisers for the disease, which usually impacts children ages 10-20. "It is an ordeal for anyone to have cancer," he says. "Food tastes terrible, you get weak and skinny. You're tired and nauseous all the time. But you learn to push on . . . There are 12 million cancer survivors. I am profoundly thankful to be one of them." http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/13433887/cancer-survivor-herzlichs-story-inspires-the-inspirational
Abby Steer
Abby was just three days old when doctors told her parents she had a rare, inoperable tumor. She was on hospice care by the age of three weeks. But her father, Michael Steer, was convinced there must be a treatment out there for her disease; after reaching out to doctors across the country, he got a call back from St. Jude, where Abby was treated via an operation and 12 rounds of chemo. Today she's been cancer-free for two years. "I see her getting married, I see her having a family," Michael says. "What we can instill in parents . . . I think that's to slow down and enjoy each step." http://www.kspr.com/news/local/94746954.html
Garland Harwood
After facing cancer in 2005, Harwood, who had to take taxis back and forth between his home in Brooklyn and St. Vincent's hospital for treatment, was inspired to raise money to help cancer patients struggling with the incidental expenses arising from the disease. That's how "Comedy for Cancer," now in its second year, was born. Five comics take the stage for a show that benefits the American Cancer Society in Brooklyn, which spends the proceeds on rides to treatment, local screenings in low-income neighborhoods and free mammograms for the uninsured. "I wanted to do something that was really affordable. It was exciting and appealing to young people and it wasn't a place where someone was lighting a candle or doing something really heavy like that, but something really light-hearted," says Harwood. http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/features/119104/nyer-of-the-week--cancer-survivor-lets-comics-stand-up-to-benefit-afflicted
Olivia Winkelhausen
In a comment on last week's entry, Winkelhausen shared her story: "My mom was in her 40s when she got breast cancer for the second time. She went through a lot and my brother and I were only 9 or 10 years of age. She was doing amazing for awhile, but then she got major headaches and couldn't do much. She finally when to the hospital and they told her she was dying and had a brain tumor that they couldn't get. I was the first child out of my 3 other siblings to find out our mom was dying. I was devastated. We brought her home where she died at 4:30 in the morning. My brother was in the room when she took her last breath and to tell you the truth he has never been the same since. It's been almost 3 years since she died and we still have a hard time, but family and friends helping us along the way is the only reason we have come so far."
As always, we welcome you to share your stories in the comments below.
Thank you to everyone from our community who submitted questions for the SU2C scientists. We received many fantastic ideas from you, and were able to pose several of the questions to the scientists during the American Association for Cancer Research 101st Annual Meeting 2010, which was held in Washington, D.C., April 17-21.
Bedonna, a member of the Stand Up To Cancer production and web teams, blogged about what she learned at the Annual Meeting; if you haven't read her blog entry yet, be sure to check it out.
Responding to our call for questions, SU2C community members Kelli, Lon and V. asked about the "little guys" -- rarer cancers that don't receive as much media attention and research funding, which are sometimes called "orphan cancers." We asked the SU2C scientists about how their research could impact these diseases. As you may know, the concept of treating cancers based on their organ of origin is rapidly falling by the wayside as scientists discover genetic commonalities between cancers once thought of as different.
Collaboration within and between the Dream Teams helps scientists find these commonalities much faster. Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D., director of the cancer center and chief of the division of signal transduction at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and leader of SU2C's "Targeting the PI3K Pathway in Women's Cancers" Dream Team, noted that "there is really no mechanism at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute or Department of Defense that does what the Dream Team concept does." Cantley went on, "Shouldn't we be targeting cancers based on the molecular events that take place and distribute our trials based on that, rather than the tissue of origin for the cancer? That's absolutely where it's going to go. We now know that there's more similarity, for example, between colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer than there is between endometrial and ovarian, for example. And there are common events between pancreatic, endometrial or ovarian. It's important that our Dream Team groups get together and compare information. We're paying very close attention to each other's research and will be very much connected between the groups."
During an unprecedented roundtable discussion between Innovative Research Grant (IRG) recipients, Elizabeth R. Lawlor, M.D., Ph.D., an IRG recipient who is an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics and pathology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, added, "Most tumors in pediatric oncology can be considered orphan diseases. So, if you study a tumor in isolation, even if you identify a great drugable target, you're never going to find a company that's willing to take that drug into development, because they're unlikely to be able to recoup their investment. For all orphan diseases or rare tumors, it's critical that we work to try to identify pathways and targets that are common among different tumors. That's the only way we're ever going to promote the development of novel agents that will have any realistic chance of getting to the clinic through the pharmaceutical companies."
SU2C community member Melanie asked, "How close are we to seeing drugs that can kill cancerous stem cells?" This topic was addressed by Dr. Lawlor, whose work on Ewing sarcoma has led to the investigation of stem cells research. During the roundtable session, she said, "It's become clear that Ewing sarcoma probably comes from a stem cell. Doing studies on normal stem cells to understand how they would develop normally and how the normal development is hijacked to form a sarcoma is difficult, but essential. If we are going to effectively target cancer stem cells without destroying normal stem cells in the process, then we need to understand what the difference between the two are and then exploit these differences. We've developed an innovative technique to make neural crest stem cells in the lab using embryonic stem cells. We are studying these normal stem cells before and after introduction of the genetic mutation that causes initiation of Ewing sarcoma. The ultimate goal is to be able to reverse the cancer process, or stop it from progressing further, without adversely affecting the health of the normal stem cells."
SU2C community member Damon asked about the toxicity of chemotherapy and finding better ways to target treatments to specific patients. This is an area of focus for many of our scientists, and several of them addressed this issue. Matthew Levy, Ph.D., an SU2C IRG recipient who is an assistant professor in the department of biochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, said, "One of the challenges with treating cancers is that the drugs that are used are toxic to all cells in many cases. There's a big drive to get drugs to the cells that are sick and avoid the healthy cells." Dr. Levy's work focuses on larger molecules called macromolecules that target drugs to the cancer cells. One class of macromolecules that he works with is called aptamers, which are composed of nucleic acids that function like antibodies. "We hope to use and adapt aptamers for delivering drugs to cancer cells. We also want to develop new methods to target cancer cells; we are trying to take the methodology that we used to develop these molecules into the animal to specifically target tumors. By combining those molecules with the technologies that we develop to deliver drugs, we hope to be able to target cancer cells and mitigate side effects," he said.
Craig B. Thompson, M.D., director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and co-leader of SU2C's "Cutting Off the Fuel Supply: A New Approach to the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer" Dream Team, picked up the thread of this discussion, noting that targeting treatment "is absolutely the critical issue going forward." He went on, "The problem is we can't go re-biopsying patients any time we want. One hope with the Dream Team from MIT is that can we use circulating tumor cells to test new drugs for tumor-specific effects. I think the other hope is functional imaging in Cantley's group ['Targeting the PI3K Pathway in Women's Cancers']. That can be done repetitively in people." Dr. Thompson also discussed leiomyosarcoma, a rare, aggressive form of sarcoma that was referenced by SU2C community member Richard, whose wife has been in clinical trials for the disease for six years. "Tomorrow morning there'll be 100 uterine leiomyosarcomas delivered to my lab to test the metabolic strategies that have evolved out of our team's work. We are going to be investigating that because it's where the process leads us next," Dr. Thompson said.
Charles M. Roberts, M.D., Ph.D., an SU2C IRG recipient who is an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an assistant professor of pediatric oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, offered a differing perspective on the issue of biopsying metastases. "There is the possibility that if we do biopsy these unknown metastases, we may be able to identify mutations that we can do something about," he said. "What we then learn is what's going wrong in these metastases that are leading them to be there. The amount of scientific knowledge that can be obtained in this way is immense."
Finally, SU2C community member Don wrote, "We always need a reason to keep pushing, trying and never give up." Words spoken by Dr. Cantley during a closed session offer a great explanation of what makes SU2C's model so unique, and give us a reason to keep working for collaborative, translational research. He said: "We're now seeing oncologists, surgeons and pathologists talking to basic scientists. We're all speaking the same language. Even 10 years ago, it was rare for a basic scientist to have a discussion with an oncologist about a clinical trial. We didn't really understand enough about the basic science of the cancer for the basic scientist to have anything to say to the oncologist that would help them improve the trial. And that's now changed. We understand cancer at a molecular level in a way that we never have before, even more than we understood it four or five years ago. This creates a very exciting scenario where we can collaborate and design trials based on molecular events that are happening in individual patients."
Nobel Laureate and SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee Chairperson Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., who is an institute professor at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, "This is going to have a very important impact, not only on the people in this room, but people outside this room who are planning national programs and thinking about the future of cancer research. We're currently at an even bigger experiment than what we started off to do, and I'm very pleased to be part of this effort."
A new, experimental breast cancer drug is showing promising results in its Phase 2 trial. Forty-six patients with advanced breast cancer are being treated with the drug, which is called bavituximab, along with chemotherapy drugs paclitaxel and carboplatin; so far 74% of them have responded to the treatment, and four patients' tumors have completely disappeared. In an older trial, a similar group of patients treated with the chemo drugs alone resulted in a response rate of 62%. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q2RQ20100527
In less optimistic news, a drug derived from shark cartilage is now in the final stage of testing on patients with advanced lung cancer, and the results are disappointing: the drug has not helped extend the life spans of patients with inoperable, stage III non-small cell lung cancer. The study, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and looked at 379 patients, notes that its impetus was "widespread use of poorly regulated complementary and alternative medicine products, such as shark cartilage-derived agents, among patients with advanced cancer, a population likely to be vulnerable to unsubstantiated marketing claims." http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/639481.html
With summer approaching, the odds are good you've spotted a headline or two warning that sunscreen may be dangerous; one report from the Environmental Working Group claims that a Vitamin A compound used in 40% of sunscreens may break down and cause skin damage under exposure to sunlight. But dermatologist Henry Lim offers a differing perspective in this article: he notes that the claims are based on studies in mice, which are far more susceptible to skin cancer than we are. But if you'd still like to find a sunscreen without the ingredient, here's a handy database to help you out. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/26/tech/main6521447.shtml
According to results of a new animal study, the children of women who are exposed to certain industrial chemicals while pregnant will be at an increased risk for developing breast cancer as adults. The chemicals tested are bisphenol-A (BPA) and diethylstilbestrol (DES), which are used for industrial manufacturing purposes. "BPA is a weak estrogen and DES is a strong estrogen, yet our study shows both have a profound effect on gene expression in the mammary gland [breast] throughout life," said the study's lead author. "All estrogens, even 'weak' ones, can alter the development of the breast and ultimately place adult women who were exposed to them prenatally at risk of breast cancer." http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/639390.html
On a related note, this article from the Baltimore Sun looks at the challenges inherent in trying to avoid environmental exposure to carcinogens, an issue on a lot of peoples' minds following the annual report from the President's Cancer Panel issued a few weeks back. Dr. Kevin Cullen, the director of the University of Maryland's Greenebaum Cancer Center, offers a tempered, pragmatic view in this article, pointing out that while environmental exposure is a big issue that deserves more attention, "The mistake would be to have people panic and make major changes around their lives and ignore other issues such as obesity and smoking." http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-chemicals-environment-cancer-20100527,0,3225195.story
That's all for this week, but check back next Thursday for more news you can use!
