About Me

My Goal: Run the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2019 with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. Raise $17,000 (or more!) where 100% of funds raised benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. I run in honor of my friend Chris Davie who is battling brain cancer. I also run in honor for my friend RJ and his continued cancer-free life, in memory of Heather Thomson, and for other family and friends who are or have battled cancer. Together we can help Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reach the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer

Barr Program Impact Statements

Barr Program Impact Statements

Immunotherapies: New Ways to Activate the Immune System—An important area of cancer research asks why the human body's defense systems do not always attack and destroy tumors as they form. Funded by the Claudia Adams Barr Program, Glenn Dranoff, MD, discovered complex regulatory pathways in the human immune system that cancers exploit in order to escape destruction. Reversal of these effects can lead to the development of vaccines against cancer, like Provenge for prostate cancer. This research has also enabled the development of immune-activating drugs such as ipilimumab, which showed striking effects in melanoma in a trial led by Dana-Farber scientists and is now approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Exciting News in Cancer Therapeutics...?

Thanks to my uncle for pointing this news out since I had not hear about it otherwise.  That said, I'm still not very likely to move back to Rochester/Buffalo just yet :)  The article below copied from the following Buffalo News link: http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article715519.ece

Roswell Park Cancer Institute is launching a clinical trial to evaluate a cancer vaccine designed to eradicate cancer cells and prevent relapse of disease.
The experimental dendritic cell vaccine, which was developed at Roswell Park, will be manufactured at the cancer center in a custom-made unit that can maintain control of temperature and gases, officials were to announce today.
The immune system protects the body against harmful invaders, such as viruses. Dendritic cells, acting somewhat like messengers, play a key role in this defense mechanism.
Dendritic cells are removed from a patient and stimulated with a specialized protein. The treated cells are then given back to the patient as a vaccine designed to recruit killer immune cells that seek and destroy cancer, Dr. Kunle Odunsi, director of Roswel Park's Center for Immunotherapy and principal investigator, said in a statement.
The new study will test the vaccine in combination with rapamycin, a compound used to prevent rejection of organ transplants. Research at the cancer center indicates that rapamycin prevents the immune system from using up its cancer-killing T-cells in a quick burst.
The study is expected to enroll about 20 patients. The vaccine is being considered for a host of cancers, including ovarian, bladder, brain and breast.
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