2013 Annual Report: The Blood Cancer Research Partnership

The 2013 Annual Report for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has been released.  In this series of blogs, a number of key advancements and developments will be highlighted.  This report is an in-depth look at how your fundraising dollars are being spent and the medical breakthroughs and partnerships you are so crucial in creating.

This unprecedented Blood Cancer Research Partnership will bring clinical trials to patients where they live and address one of the primary bottlenecks to new cancer therapies: the need for more patients to take part in trials.

LLS committed funding to Valor Biotherapeutics, LLC, a joint venture between ImmunGene and Caliber companies, to develop a novel protein therapeutic that may improve outcomes for many patients with indolent lymphomas who do not respond to standard therapy with Rituxan.  Valor's biotherapeutic is produced by fusing lymphoma-seeking antibodies to tumor-cell-killing proteins in a single, genetically engineered molecule.

The APL Project:  LLS initiated a project with Anand Jillella, MD, Chief of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant at Emory University, to reduce the mortality rates for patients diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) by providing community oncologists/hematologists with a simple, optimized treatment protocol for the care of newly diagnosed patients with APL, a rare molecular subtype of acute myeloid leukemia.

LLS partnered with Affimed Therapeutics AG to co-fund a phase 2 trial of a novel multi-targeted anitbody in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) patients for whom currently available treatments have failed.  This therapeutic is directed against two different molecules, CD30 and CD16A, to bring cancer-killing immune cells directly to the HL cells.  It is a first-in-class immunotherapy designed to treat HL patients and patients with other CD30-positive malignancies.

2013 Annual Report: Research Milestones

The 2013 Annual Report for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been released.  In this series of blogs, a number of key advancements and developments will be highlighted.  This report is an in-depth look at how your fundraising dollars are being spent and the medical breakthroughs and partnerships you are so crucial in creating.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is passionate about finding a cure for blood cancers because they are not preventable.  A cure really is the only option.  LLS' investment in research ($70 million in the last year alone) is indicative of its dedication and below are thrilled to introduce you to some of its research milestones from the last year.

Celator.  The LLS Therapy Acceleration Program passed an important milestone in January 2013 when Celator announced enrollment of the first patient in the phase 3 clinical trial of a novel drug formulation, CPX-351, for older patients with especially high-risk cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

CPS-351 employs a novel technology to ensure that the most effective ratio of two standard drugs gets directly to the leukemia cells, and that leukemia cells are preferentially killed.  This is an example of a promising therapy that might otherwise not be developed because it benefits a small patient population.  LLS hopes that the phase 3 trial will ultimately support approval of a much-needed treatment option for AML patients, for whom there have been few advances over the past three decades.

Curis, Inc., a drug development company seeking to develop next-generation targeted anti-cancer drugs, announced that the first patient has been treated in a phase 1 clinical study of a new drug, CUDC-907, for patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma or multiple myeloma.

CUDC-907 is a first-in-class oral drug designed as a dual inhibitor of two enzyme classes that are both abnormally active in many cancers, known as phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and histone deacetylase (HDAC).

Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is focused on the emerging area of "epigenetics," i.e. non-mutation changes to genes and gene-binding proteins that, like gene mutations, can promote cancers.  The company announced that it has initiated phase 1 clinical trial of CPI-0610, a novel inhibitor of the :BET" family of gene-binding proteins, in patients with previously treated and progressive lymphomas.

This first-in-human trial is currently open at The Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, TN and at the John Theurer Cancer Center in Hackensack, NJ.  Additional US study sites will join the trial over the next several months.  Studies of CPI-0610 are also planned in patients with multiple myeloma and in patients with acute leukemias or myelodysplastic syndromes.

2013 Annual Report: New Grants

The 2013 Annual Report for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been released.  In this series of blogs, a number of key advancements and developments will be highlighted.  This report is an in-depth look at how your fundraising dollars are being spent and the medical breakthroughs and partnerships you are so crucial in creating.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is always working to find ways to ensure that the best and brightest researchers in the world of blood cancer research have the funds to complete their work and get us closer to a world without blood cancers.  LLS introduced a number of new grants in 2013 to achieve that goal.

New Idea.  This is a new grant program designed to identify highly novel research strategies with potential to fundamentally increase our understanding of specific blood cancers and significantly change the way blood cancer patients are diagnosed and treated.  This program supports academic researchers with approaches that are likely to help improve patient outcomes.  The researchers will receive a one-year $100,000 grant.

Screen to Lead.  LLS also recently solicited applications from researchers who are identifying (screening) potential drugs that inhibit recently discovered cancer-driving molecules (targets) and/or optimizing the chemical properties of novel inhibitors.  This Screen to Lead initiative acknowledges a significant need to help investigators discover and improve drug-like compounds that can be further tested in the lab and in the clinic.

Quest for Cures.  In February 2013, LLS asked the academic researcher community to propose research focusing on three priority areas:  Monitoring tumor cell heterogeneity and its contribution to response or resistance to therapy; molecular mechanisms to identify and direct subsets of patients with B-cell malignancies to the right therapy; and the roll of the tumor microenvironment in initiation and maintenance of blood cancers.  Quest for Cures is enabled by funding by Celgene through our new Targets Leads and Candidates Program.  This program identifies and funds priority research areas, with support from biotechnology and pharmaceutical company partners.

LLS continues to support the development of breakthrough cancer therapies in academic settings, committing substantial funding to researchers around the world.

2013 Annual Report: Your Dollars at Work

The 2013 Annual Report for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been released.  In this series of blogs, a number of key advancements and developments will be highlighted.  This report is an in-depth look at how your fundraising dollars are being spent and the medical breakthroughs and partnerships you are so crucial in creating.

One of the biggest questions people ask when selecting a cause to support is, "How do I know my money will make a real difference?"  The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) takes the responsibility of using donor dollars wisely very seriously so that more of each dollar goes directly to research and patient support.  The 2013 Annual Report breaks out how each dollar you donate is spent.

Research                                            24.2%

Patient and Community Service           36%

Public Health Education                      14.6%

Professional Education                        2.8%

TOTAL PROGRAM SERVICES: 77.6%

Mangement and General                         8.3%

Fundraising                                             14.1%

TOTAL SUPPORTING SERVICES: 22.4%

Please feel free to share these stats with your supporters.

2013 Annual Report: Groundbreaking Partnerships

The 2013 Annual Report for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been released.  In this series of blogs, a number of key advancements and developments will be highlighted.  This report is an in-depth look at how your fundraising dollars are being spent and the medical breakthroughs and partnerships you are so crucial in creating.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is well positioned to align the key players in the ecosystem of cancer innovation.  This has led to new and groundbreaking partnerships:

LLS's Therapy Acceleration Program added many new partners from the biopharmaceutical industry and academic institutions.  One of the most important was the Knight cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).  The Beat AML initiative, led by Brian Druker, MD, includes major technology companies like Intel, which provides big data computing technology, and Illumina, which provides advanced genetic sequencing.  The goal is to identify the many mutations that drive acute myeloid leukemia and identify drugs that can target these mutations.

In July 2013, LLS announced a partnership with John Hopkins University School of Medicine to advance a novel immunotherapy for patients with poor prognosis myeloma.  Under the leadership of Ivan Borrello, MD, researchers are testing a method using immune system T-cells that are specifically trained to recognize and kill myeloma cells.  The approach shows promise for patients with other blood cancers as well.

In June 2013, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute joined LLS to establish clinical testing of innovative blood cancer therapies in community oncology settings across the country.