Dallas Light The Night Memorial Hero: Doug Campbell

Doug Campbell's remarkable life is honored at the 2015 Light
The Night Walk with a gold ribbon at the LLS Mission Tent

The Dallas 2016 Light The Night Memorial Hero is a North Texas man who led a remarkable life despite living in the shadow of an incurable blood cancer.  Doug's story continues to inspire and motivate the people who had the chance to hear him share his struggle and his joy for life in person.  This past September, Douglas M. Campbell, Ph.D., age 52, lost his 15-year battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Doug was many things - a repeat Team In Training athlete, Light The Night participant, Mission Task Force co-chair, cancer advocate, inspiring honored hero, champion volunteer, scientist and friend,  but the role he was most proud of was that of a loving husband and father to his three beautiful girls.  He often cited his family as his motivation to not only fight to survive his disease and its side effects, but to live life to its fullest. He noted his top goals were to see his daughters graduate from high school, then college, one day walk them down the aisle and maybe even meet his grandchildren.  He did see his oldest daughter graduate and go on to study chemistry like her dad. Unfortunately, he passed away just shy of seeing his second child graduate this year and will most certainly be there in spirit for the many future milestones his girls will reach.

His wife, Stacey, and their three daughters are continuing what their family began when Doug was first diagnosed in 2000.  They are steadfast in their dedication to helping fulfill the LLS vision of a world without blood cancers and registered their Walkers for Hope team for the 2016 Light The Night Walk, the family’s 16th consecutive Light the Night Walk, setting a goal of raising $100,000 in Doug's memory.

The $100,000 fundraising goal is significant to the Campbell family because that will allow them to name a LLS research grant in Doug's honor. “The cure is out there. As a gifted chemist, Doug was always about the research and the science. It seems only fitting to set this goal to memorialize Doug Campbell's intellect, courage, strength and pure will to live life well every day of his 15- year battle. Our hope is to get us one step closer to saving another daddy from leaving his girls too soon.” shares Stacey.
We are honored to have Doug Campbell serve as the 2016 Memorial Hero for the Dallas Mega Walk. We could not think of a more deserving representative for the work still to be done.  Inspired by Doug's story?  You can register to participate in the upcoming Walks by registering at www.lightthenight.org/ntx

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.