With only 100 days to go, over 30% of my fundraising goal has been raised!!! During the last 48 hours, an astounding $1,242 was donated by friends and family (and the donations are still coming in!). I cannot possibly express how this demonstration of generosity and commitment to fighting cancer has touched me. As today brings back memories of the commencement of my leukemia treatment, I am confident that our support of cancer research will forever alter the way we view this disease.
I know that it can be challenging to remain supportive of cancer research while we continue to lose loved ones to the disease, but huge steps are being made. To demonstrate how your donations will make a difference in this fight, I am going to begin including specific examples of Dana-Farber projects that are funded by the Barr program.
New Treatment for Neuroblastoma in Children
Neuroblastoma has historically been a very difficult cancer to treat in children, and, although chemotherapy and stem cell transplants have improved survival, relapse is common and nearly almost always fatal. With Barr support in 2007, Rani George, MD, PhD, discovered that a significant number of neuroblastoma tumors contain a mutation in the gene ALK. Several successful drugs already exist to treat other types of cancer that demonstrate these same ALK mutations, and Dr. George and her team have initiated clinical trials that could result in new treatments that will improve survival for children with neuroblastoma.
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