Mission Monday: Brian Druker, M.D.

For more than sixty years, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has supported groundbreaking and lifesaving research.  One of the most notable researchers LLS has supported is Brian Druker, M.D.  He was a leader during the 1990s in the development of Gleevec, a revolutionary "targeted therapy" approved by the FDA in 2001 for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.  Recent studies show that more than 90% of nearly diagnosed early stage chronic myeloid leukemia patients can expect to survive long-term.  Dr. Druker is a large reason why that number is so high. 

Watch this video to find out what piqued Dr. Druker's interest in blood cancers early in his career.

Freebie Friday: Therapy Acceleration Program

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is very proud of its Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP) and its goal of turning life-saving medical discoveries into cancer drugs at lightning speeds.  Watch this video to learn more about how your fundraising dollars are being used to fast-track cancer drugs.



Freebie Friday: Meet an LLS-Funded Researcher & His Incredible Discovery

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has given Dr. Carl June more than $18 million to fund his blood cancer research and as you will see from this remarkable video, the investment is paying off.  Dr. June is just one of the thousands of researchers LLS has funded since its inception.  In 2011 alone, LLS invested more than $68 million in cutting edge research.  Cures are coming and LLS is driving it.

Freebie Friday: Meet Stacey Russell

Deputy Executive Director Stacey Russell
with Executive Director Patricia Thomson.

Just yesterday at the Saint Valentine’s Day Luncheon and Fashion Show, I was again amazed by the number of people that are touched by blood cancers. The event honored a young boy who generously and without question, donated his bone marrow to his younger brother, now a survivor of leukemia. A committee member spoke about her battle with lymphoma; another was there in honor of her brother who is battling leukemia as we speak. It is stories like those that I hear at the various events and programs that The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) hosts each year to help raise funds and awareness that keeps me motivated to do what I get the privilege of doing every day.

I was lucky enough ten years ago to stumble upon a job opening at LLS and it has definitely changed my life, for the better. Some things have changed ten years later, like the amazing advancements that have been made in treatments, some of the events that take place and some of the people that are no longer here as they lost their battle. Some things have stayed the same… like the generosity of people. Each day, there is a scientist hard at work trying to find the link to a cure due to the generosity of people in the community giving of their time, donating to someone doing a marathon through Team in Training or climbing stairs at the Big D Climb, becoming a corporate sponsor for the Links Fore Leukemia Golf Tournament or coming to the Lone Star Blood Cancer Conference as a caregiver wanting to learn more about how they can help their loved one through their cancer journey.

We all have days where we think what else could go wrong? Its raining and I have a flat tire or whatever the case may be. It seems disastrous then, but in the grand scheme of things, I am healthy, my husband, my kids, my family and friends are healthy, and that is what is important. However, there are so many people here in North Texas, across the US and the world that are not as fortunate. Instead, they are fighting for their lives or their loved one is. This is why getting involved with LLS in whatever way you can is so important, especially now. We are in the business of saving lives, literally, and invite you to be a part of that too. Someday Is Today!

Mission Monday: Your Donations at Work

For some patients with blood cancers, a bone-marrow transplant is their best treatment option. But it is difficult and risky.

A breakthrough trial in Philadelphia by Dr. Carl June is using patients' own immune systems as a safer, better option. In this LLS-funded research, doctors collect a patient's immune T cells, engineer them in the lab as "killer cells" and return them to the patient. The modified cells are trained to attack the cancer and multiply to expand the anti-cancer army.

Last week, success of this trial was heralded in the media. In this "immunotherapy" clinical trial, three adults with chronic leukemia achieved complete remissions with no signs of disease. Four other adults showed partial remissions. And a six-year-old patient diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia is now seven months in complete remission.

For blood cancer patients everywhere - LLS's drive to develop safer and more effective treatments like this immunotherapy brings hope. And your dollars are making that possible today, not someday.

Thankful Thursday: Winning Awards

Stanford University Awards The Leukemia &

Lymphoma Society the "Sprit of Hope" Award



Stanford University School of Medicine has presented John Walter, CEO of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), with the 2012 Spirit of Hope Award for Outstanding Health Care Organization in recognition of LLS’s 35 years of funding support to Stanford’s researchers.

In the last 15 years alone, LLS has awarded more than $27 million in research grants to Stanford University investigators, who are at the forefront of discovering innovative diagnostics and treatments.

The event was hosted by one of Stanford’s esteemed researchers, Beverly Mitchell, MD, director of Stanford Cancer Institute, who has made many significant contributions to LLS over the years. Dr. Mitchell currently leads an LLS Specialized Center of Research (SCOR), a program that funds teams of researchers representing different disciplines who are engaged in collaborative efforts to discover new approaches to treat patients with hematological malignancies.

Among their many cutting-edge projects, the team is testing a new targeted drug for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), with a long-term goal of preventing the disease from advancing to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). This same drug is being advanced in clinical trials by Onconova Therapeutics Inc., a partner in LLS’s Therapy Acceleration Program, a strategic initiative to form corporate partnerships to advance sponsored research in the clinic.

Dr. Mitchell also served as a as a past chair of LLS’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee and was a member of its national Board of Directors.

“It is truly a great honor for LLS to be recognized by a world-class research institution such as Stanford,” Walter said. “For more than 35 years we have shared a commitment to advancing outstanding cancer research and transforming the most promising discoveries into treatments to help patients live better, longer lives.”

Photo: LLS CEO John Walter Addresses the Audience at Stanford Before Accepting Award as Beverly Mitchell, MD, Stanford, looks on.

Mission Monday: Targeted Therapy Research

TARGETED THERAPY RESEARCH

Discovering the molecular abnormalities that cause particular types of blood cancer has been useful

in diagnosis and risk stratification, and in new “targeted drug” development. LLS-funded

investigators have helped advance molecularly targeted treatments that can selectively kill blood

cancer cells versus normal cells. Many of these new treatments benefit not only blood cancer

patients, but also patients with other diseases. For example:

Gleevec® is FDA-approved for patients of all ages with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and

is also approved for patients with one form of acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), myelodysplastic

syndromes (MDS), myeloproliferative disorders and rare forms of stomach and skin cancers.

Related drugs, Sprycel® and Tasigna®, are approved for patients who do not benefit from

Gleevec. One or more of these drugs are also showing promise for patients with various

lymphomas, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and other

cancers, including brain, breast, head-and-neck, lung, pancreatic, and prostate cancers, and

patients with other diseases including Alzheimer’s, asthma and pulmonary hypertension.

Rituxan® was the first FDA-approved, anti-cancer antibody drug, developed for patients with

forms of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). It is now also approved for CLL patients and as

a “maintenance” therapy for follicular lymphoma patients, and showing promise for patients with

ALL and after stem cell transplantation. In addition, it is approved for treating patients with

severe rheumatoid arthritis and two other types of autoimmune diseases. A related antibody drug,

Arzerra®, is approved for CLL patients and showing wider promise.

Velcade®, Thalidomid® and Revlimid® are FDA-approved for patients with myeloma and are

also helping some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and NHL.

Krypolis® was recently

approved for myeloma patients for whom at least two prior therapies were insufficient. One or

more of these drugs are now being tested for patients with T-cell and B-cell forms of lymphoma,

acute leukemias, as well as AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma and brain, breast, colorectal, head-andneck,

kidney, liver, lung, ovarian and prostate cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Istodax®, Zolinza®, Dacogen® and Vidaza® target small chemical, “epigenetic” changes. The

first two drugs are approved for patients with peripheral T-cell lymphomas; the latter drugs are

approved for MDS patients. One or more of these drugs are being tested for patients with ALL,

AML, CML, CLL, myeloma and forms of NHL, after stem cell transplantation, and for patients

with breast, brain, kidney, colorectal, head-and-neck, lung, stomach, prostate and ovarian cancers, melanomas well as sickle cell disease and persistent HIV infections.