|
What our
supporters have to say
What your funding creates and what the
researchers are saying
What our
supporters have to say:
"Cancer League
of Colorado is an organization near to my
heart as my father passed away from cancer a few years ago. I am
especially proud to be associated with Cancer League because it is
a 100% volunteer organization with every penny raised going directly
to research and patient care projects here in Colorado."
Bill Owens
Former
Governor of Colorado
"Cancer is a group of dread diseases which will afflict one in three
Americans during their lifetime. It is not widely recognized that more
than 50% of those who develop cancer will be cured of their disease,
that the cure rate increases with younger age, and that the cure rate
has progressively increased over the past 2 decades. Last year the
mortality rate from cancer declined for the first time. All of these
positive events have developed because of the nation's cancer research
efforts. Although the National Cancer Institute is the largest single
source of cancer research funds, the NCI's funding is less than 50% of
all cancer research funds, and is a small fraction of the funds spent
on cancer health care. The dollars raised by Cancer League are essential for
the cancer research effort in Colorado, providing flexible dollars for
novel ideas. These novel ideas invariably lead to new grants and new
ways to solve the cancer problem."
Dr. Paul Bunn
Director of Colorado University Cancer Center, retired
University of Colorado Health Science Center
"If you want to do something about Cancer, invest your time and
contributions to Cancer League, because you know it will make a
difference."
Suzy Thevenet
 Past President Cancer League of Colorado
"My year as President was so worthwhile and fulfilling because of the
committed 100% volunteers that make Cancer League the tremendous
organization that it is."
Edie Marks, Realtor
Past President Cancer League of Colorado
"Cancer League of Colorado was instrumental in starting QuaLife
and has continued to offer encouragement and funds. Without Cancer
Leagues support, QuaLife might not exist."
Fleta Johnson
QuaLifeline President
Past President, Cancer League
"I think that what impresses me most about Cancer league is the fact
that a lot of hardworking volunteers make it possible to continue the
fight against cancer."
Mike Nelson
Meteorologist
What your funding
creates and what the researchers are saying:
Each
CLC Dollar Donated to Research Generates
$20 More In Funding
as pdf file
During the past 30 years Cancer League of Colorado, Inc. (CLC)
has raised over $4 million to be used for early-stage cancer
research. These funds have been disbursed to Colorado-based research
organizations, typically in amounts of $15,000 to $30,000. In many
cases this seed funding has resulted in significant follow-on
research funded by the federal government pharmaceutical companies
and other organizations.
CLC recently did a statistical analysis of a number of grants made
during the past several years and determined that for every dollar
it provided as early-stage research grants in Colorado, another
$20 was raised through subsequent funding by larger organizations
to continue the more promising investigations. This covered basic
research as well as translational research that can be readily
applied to clinical applications. It included pursuits into bold new
directions as well as the expansion of previously successful
treatments. Even without additional funding, CLC financial support
resulted in numerous helpful publications in peer reviewed journals.
Without the aid of CLC, many of these researchers would have
struggled greatly to have obtained backing elsewhere, But don't
simply take our word for it. Following are what our research grant
recipients have to say about the efficacy of CLC funding in the
marathon struggle to find a cure for cancer.
"CLC provides bridge funding for young investigators early in their
careers, allowing them to continue their research while they work on
obtaining more long-term support,"
notes Timothy
Garrington M.D.
"CLC works like a
seed. From the seed, we grow up huge trees,"
observed researcher
Zhang Gongyi.
"The CLC funding was
crucial for my stay in that research area because my salary was
provided from this grant. The work I initiated during that period
provided fertile ground for my research,"
explained CLC grant
recipient Naushad Ali, Ph.D.
"The preliminary
results generated during that period led the foundation stone for my
current research programs, and as a result I was able to publish a
few research papers. The preliminary investigation during this
period helped in getting grants from the American Liver Foundation
($90,000 over 3 years)."
“Your
contribution helps researchers to continue their interest in cancer
biology. The information generated by each research project funded
by CLC is like thick dots that make a bold line. You are not only
part of those dots
but also connecting links,"
Ali concluded.
"Thanks to the first CLC grant, we were able
to create a new line of transgenic mice that will be of general use
to researchers in the areas of B cell development and malignancies,"
James
Hagman Ph.D. emphasized.
M.D. Gail Eckhardt's
CLC funded research "has helped guide what types of biological
tests are most useful in these clinical trials."
The results
"are being used to develop novel treatments for cancer and to
determine if they are effective
in hitting the cancer target.
This really helps fund
cutting edge clinical and translational research,"
she
concluded.
"Three
publications have resulted from this work, and a fourth publication
has been submitted,"
summarized Lela Lee M.D. ”In
my estimation, this is a high publication-to-funding ratio."
It's "good to have the money stay local.
Colorado universities have become national factors in cancer
research,"
said appreciative
researcher Carol Sartorius.
One of the most
interesting stories we have comes from cancer researcher and former
cancer patient Anne Brauweiler, Ph.D. "I felt very lucky since
someone in my situation 20 years sooner would not have survived at
all. In addition there are many people for which chemotherapy and
radiation are not effective. I kept imagining that there must be
some way of drastically improving on the current methods of
treatment available. Since I was nearing completion of graduate
school, I decided that my goal would be to develop better, more
specific therapies that would allow the selective targeting and
destruction of tumor cells," she told us.
I considered
that one potentially successful strategy might be to rely on the
tremendous powers of the immune system. The immune system can
protect against disease by attacking and destroying bacterial and
viral invaders. Before I entered the laboratory, no-one was studying
cancer or tumor immunity.
"The previous two
years of funding from Cancer League has enabled me to test a
model in which
tumor cells could be destroyed or eliminated, not
by chemotherapy, but instead
by the immune system.
Based on these studies, we found that the immune system cells, known
as macrophages, indeed could eliminate tumor cells if they were
given some 'help' in the form of tumor specific antibody and a
cytokine known as interferon gamma.
"Intriguingly,
recent clinical studies have demonstrated the first successful use
of antibodies to directly treat human cancer. These antibodies,
developed by the biotech company, Genentech, were effective in
curing over half of the patients with untreatable lymphoma.
I believe that one day, there will be specific
antibodies that recognize and selectively destroy all human cancer
cells," she concluded.
Dr. Thomas Langan
cited a critical difference in CLC funding from others.
"Support of basic research is extremely important, and is the
only thing that will eventually provide the solid
foundation of
knowledge needed to control cancer.
This is especially true these days where pressure (applied by
earmarking research funds to be used solely for the purpose) to
carry out "translational research," research that is supposed to
have the potential to be 'translated' directly into patient care, is
extremely high. The fraction of such projects that successfully
translate into beneficial treatment has been extremely low."
This answer
sounds somewhat melodramatic, but I would probably not be in an
academic setting today without the support of CLC.
The first grant was instrumental in permitting
us to continue our work, and without it, I almost certainly would be
in another position today, most likely in industry,'
stated Jerome Schaack.
"The support of CLC
provided us the security to perform several costly, yet risky,
experiments that we might not otherwise have attempted,"
observed William Schiemann.
"Without the research
grant from Cancer League Colorado, we would not be able to pursue
the research that we had proposed,"
Dai Zonghan Ph.D. concluded. "We might have (had) to spend (a)
significant amount of time to look for funding opportunity
elsewhere. With the support
from Cancer League Colorado, we were able to identify molecular
events that are critical for pathogenesis of CML and ALL.”
“The spread of
a primary tumor to secondary sites complicates treatment and makes
complete eradication of the cancer considerably more difficult,"
noted Bruce Cuevas, Ph.D.
"Indeed,
... cancer therapies that successfully prevent the cancer from
spreading to other sites would greatly simplify treatment and would
be expected to significantly improve the survival rate of patients
suffering from a number of cancer types." |
Did you know that each dollar donated to Cancer League research generates
another $20 in funding?