There was also good news at Saturday’s Dana-Farber Leadership Summit. In fact, there has been a lot of good news lately. But we need to keep the momentum going.
Start with the fact the most common form of childhood leukemia–a disease that just 35 years ago killed five out of every six children who got it–now has a 90 percent cure rate. There are still problems: the long term side effects of those massive doses of toxic chemicals can be nasty. And 10 percent still don’t make it at all–but those problems are being worked on and real progress is being made in both areas.
The new Profile Program is part of that–and part of the progress on a number of cancers. Every new patient at Dana-Farber gets a genetic profile of the cancer they have done right at the start. What is learned from that then guides all the treatment decisions about that patient. Specific drugs target the specific genetic mutations that are driving that cancer. This results in fewer toxins going into the body–which means fewer side effects in both the short and long terms.
When I worked in a lab 40 years ago, we had to sacrifice lab animals to see what was going on with them. That doesn’t have to happen any more. Dana-Farber has developed new imaging technologies that make it possible to do CT scans and the like on animals as small as mice. Now we can track the effect of a new drug or radiation regimen without killing the creature serving as the model.
They have also finally found an animal model for neuroblastoma–the brain cancer that children develop and for which there really is not much hope at present. But zebra fish are proving to be a key to unlocking that particular door.
And I will point out again the new Program in Neuroendocrine and Carcinoid Tumors with its own lab and its own staff that is going after the cancer that killed Jane.
The government did not pick up the tab for any of the above at the beginning. Neither did private businesses like insurance companies and drug companies. The initial money for all of that came from private donors–people like you and me.
Last year, I walked from Hopkinton to Boston–all 26.2 miles of the Marathon route. You and I raised a bit over $4,300 as a result. That money went to research into NET–as did the over $35,000 the Caring for Carcinoid team raised that day. That money funded genetic research that will eventually lead to a Profile Program for NETs. The more we understand the disease, the more we can shape cures for it.
I am walking again this year. I have pledged to match every dollar pledged to my walk with a dollar of my own for the first $5,000. That means if I collect $5,000 in donations, Dana-Farber will get another $5,000 on top of that.
I am that serious about taking out the cancer that took Jane from us. I am that serious about saving others from the awful and humiliating days Jane faced at the end.
Please help today.
