Sunday, July 15, 2012

How Does LLS Help Other Diseases?


Did you know that your donation not only helps people with Leukemia, Lymphoma, and other multiple myeloma but also benefits other diseases? Read this article below to find out more information.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds over 400 research grantees who are pursuing the causes and cures for leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. In the course of this research, these scientists study various aspects of the normal and diseased immune system, the molecular causes of blood-related cancers and various treatment regimens and therapeutic agents. All of these research pursuits have significant impact on the treatment and cure of other diseases, including breast cancer, prostate cancer and other solid tumors, AIDS, autoimmune diseases and various other blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia.

Let's look at several examples of this "cross-functional" research. Treatment of breast cancer has directly benefited from Society funding of bone marrow/stem cell transplant research. New, intensive chemotherapeutic treatment of breast cancer with autologous bone marrow transplant is a currently investigated treatment option for women with advanced breast cancer. The Society has and is currently funding important research into stem cell and bone marrow transplantation. (Current committed funding impacting breast cancer research is $17.9 million.)

AIDS patients have likewise benefited from research funded by the Society. For patients with AIDS comes an increased risk (>80 times) of AIDS-associated lymphoma. Because highly active anti-retroviral therapies (HAART) reduces this risk, we have also funded research into opportunistic infections and into understanding and treating Kaposi’s sarcoma, an HIV-related cancer. This may prevent or limit HIV growth and reduce the risk of AIDS-associated lymphoma. (Current committed funding impacting AIDS research is $3.7 million.)

A recent "cross over" therapy involves the new, molecularly-targeted leukemia pill called GleevecTM. Gleevec is an orally administered drug that inhibits certain enzymes that are mutated and drive the growth of chronic myelogenous leukemia cells. The Society has funded and continues to fund Dr. Brian Druker's work into this new therapeutic agent. A related enzyme is altered in gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). Gleevec is a powerful new tool in the treatment of GIST with long term remission occurring in 70% of patients, including those with distant metastatic tumors. (Current committed for research on GleevecTM is $11.6 million.)

Of course, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds research into the basic cellular mechanisms of growth regulation. Many genes that are mutated or altered in the evolution of various cancers are the same. These altered genes are called oncogenes (if they help stimulate growth) or tumor suppressor genes (if they promote the normal limitation of cellular growth). Obviously, research that sheds light on how these altered genes disrupt cellular growth regulation is important for the development of new therapies for all types of cancers harboring these mutated genes.


We thought this was fascinating information and helps to show that your donation is going beyond just specific cancer research. Let us know what you think by commenting below?

 Have you donated yet?


**Prepared by Alan J. Kinniburgh, Ph.D., Vice President of Research, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 21 April 2004 For information on Society-funded research in specific areas, visit www.lls.org, click on “Research” then “Grants in Force” and do a search for your area of interest.**

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Research Success

Do you wonder where your donation goes? Watch this video to find out about the patients, families, and what the doctors say about your donations. It would not be possible without you!





Here are some examples of what your donations are used for at LLS:

$5 is the cost of sending a newly diagnosed patient information about their disease and how to get support.

$25 covers a single prescription co-payment.

$35 pays for transportation expenses for a patient living in Northern California's most rural areas to treatment at a comprehensive cancer center.

$40 is the cost of sending a comprehensive packet of information for children with cancer.

$75 is the average cost of tissue typing to become a bone marrow donor.

$100 provides 3 patients access to an information teleconference.

$150 allows 5 patients to make a First Connection with a trained peer volunteer.

$200 provides a Family Support Group Program for one year for a patient and their family.

$500 allows 10 patients to log on to a webcast and hear the latest information in treatment for their disease.

$550 is the cost of a CT scan.

$1000 supports one week's salary for a medical researcher at UCSF, Stanford, or Berkeley who may discover key information to developing curative treatments for blood cancers.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Loss of Author and Filmmaker Nora Ephron

Where would we be without our relationship delusions from "When Harry Met Sally", "You've Got Mail", and "Sleepless in Seattle"?

Fandom4LLS recognizes and mourns the loss of author and filmmaker Nora Ephron from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Please take a moment to read the article below.

LLS Mourns the Loss of Author and Filmmaker Nora Ephron 

 White Plains, NY (June 27, 2012) - The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) was deeply saddened to learn of the death of the supremely talented Nora Ephron, from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).
Ephron had been battling myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which then progressed to AML.
MDS is a group of diseases of the blood and bone marrow, with varying degrees of severity. Sometimes MDS can develop as a result of treatment for a different cancer.  MDS is often a precursor to AML, a rapidly progressing blood cancer that results from acquired changes in the DNA of a developing marrow cell.

LLS is currently funding a Phase III trial for a promising new drug, rigorsertib (trade name Estybon®) being developed by Onconova Therapeutics Inc with support from LLS's Therapy Acceleration Program. The drug inhibits multiple molecular processes critical in the growth and survival of cancer cells. Encouraging earlier stage trials showed disease reduction in MDS patients who did not benefit from other therapies, and reduced need for red blood cell transfusions.  The goal of the Onconova project is to develop a treatment for MDS so the disease does not progress to AML. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have recognized this drug could fill an unmet need for MDS patients.

"Our thoughts are with Ms. Ephron's family," said LLS President and CEO John Walter. "LLS is relentless in its pursuit of new therapies to defeat these diseases."

It's YOUR donations to LLS that fund these research projects, and help develop treatment and potential cures for cancer. Please take a moment to donate using the button on the right in honor of Nora Ephron and all those who battles these horrible cancers.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Expanding Our Compilation

After much thought and consideration we have decided to expand our author contributions to include Hunger Games fic! I know many of you are excited about this news. When we email out the compilation it will be spilt into two "books". A book for Twilight and a book for Hunger Games.

Because we are expanding our event we are looking for one to two people to compile the finished work. It should be someone who can organize the finished products and compress them into a PDF format. If you are interested please email us ASAP at Fandom4LLS@gmail.com

Our goal is to raise as much money as possible for blood cancer research and we need your help to do that.

If you have any questions please let us know.

Thank You!
     
            

Friday, June 15, 2012

A wife, a mother, and a daughter...

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine who I have met while raising money to find a cure for cancer. I met Natalie and her husband during the Summer of 2011. Natalie and I were training for a half marathon and her husband his first full marathon. Her story inspires and touches me. I hope it will do the same for you. Below is her story through her journals during treatment.

Meet Natalie

"Why I do what I do:

Being told that I had cancer was the most terrifying thing anyone has ever told me.

 -Nov 27, 2008 "Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)....that's what the doctor says I have. The underlying reason for what's going on with my body. It can't be cancer! I don't want it to be cancer. The doctor gave me a pamphlet to read about the type of cancer I have but I don't want it. I don't want to read about it. I just want it to go away!"

 -Nov 30, 2008 "I feel so scared, I'm normally in control and things go according to plan, this is so hard and terrifying for me. All of this is out of my control, out of my hands. This definitely wasn't in any of my plans. I guess I need to look at this as a lesson, a lesson learned that we are not always in control of our fate."

 After the shock of what I'd been told wore off, my thoughts immediately went to my family...

 -Dec 9, 2008 "Cancer is an indiscriminate, awful, aggressive disease that can take the life from even the strongest of wills. If this is going to claim my life I would not want for anyone, especially those most dear to my heart, to think that I wanted anything less than to live. Because that is all I hope for during this time. I hope for life. I want it. I want to live! I want more than anything to watch Dean and Allie grow into the fine adults I know they will become. I want to be there for them when they learn to drive, for their first date, graduation, marriage, parenthood, and all the things in between. And I want to be there for Kevin, who I have loved with all my heart for so long, but not long enough!"

 -Dec 15, 2008 "I don't want to die. It can't be my time. I'm not ready to be done. There's so much that lies ahead. Good thoughts, trying to have good thoughts. But there's one question that keeps creeping back in; am I going to die? I know we are all going to die, but now, am I going to die now?!"

 -Dec 22, 2008 "Now that I've lost all of my hair I don't like going out. I'm afraid of the oh-my-god-you've-got-cancer face. I don't want people to pity me. Sometimes I feel like people are afraid to be around me, like it reminds them that it, cancer, can happen to anyone, even them. Nobody wants to be reminded of that. I try to be brave for my kids; I try to be as normal for them as possible. The fear that I see in their eyes angers and saddens me for I'm the one that's caused it. Me, their mother, put this fear in them. They should associate me with love, not with fear of any kind, let alone fear of dying!"

 -Jan 2, 2009 "The pain is so bad at times. It's in my bones. It hurts so bad to sit down or stand. I start to sit and then halfway down, I just collapse from too much pain. The Vicodin only helps so much."

 -Jan 20, 2009 "Waiting for this to be over. Will it ever be over? Positive, think positive, I know that's what I need to do, it's just so hard sometimes. At least I'm not in the hospital. Will always be thankful for everyday that I'm not in there. Listening to Dean and Allie argue is like music to my ears compared to the silence of my hospital room."

 -Feb 15, 2009 "Although I'm truly thankful to be home, it's hard having no energy to help with things around the house. I feel guilty that Kevin works all day and then comes home to dishes and laundry and everything. I want to do more, my body just doesn't cooperate. I want to help Dean and Allie with homework. I have always helped them when they've needed it, I just don't have the strength to even sit at the kitchen table and think. I'm so sorry. I want to be strong, I don't want them to see me weak or in pain. I always try to hide the pain. I know it must hurt them."

 -Apr 1, 2009 "Every day seems to get a little easier. I'm physically feeling stronger. I no longer sit most of the day on the sofa. My naps are less frequent. I think mentally I'm stronger as well. As my hair regrows, so does my confidence. I know I shouldn't care about such trivial things, but losing my hair was a big deal for me. To me, every time I looked in the mirror and saw my bald head, it reminded me, like a scar, that I had cancer. Now as my hair is growing back, it's covering that scar. I'm healing, the wound is closing. I don't notice the oh-my-god-you've-got-cancer face anymore. I'm so thankful for that, it was so hard for me to have people see me as weak. I don't believe I ever considered myself as weak before, but I do consider myself lucky. Lucky to have life!!!"

 I attended a Writing For Healing workshop offered through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help me with my coping and healing. During this class I did an exercise where I was to write about the contents of a 'magic box' that was in front of me. The box could contain anything I wanted it to. This is what I wrote:
    "When I open this magic box that lays in front of me it contains something that has limitless potential and value. It means more to me than any words can say, but it also means so much to so many others. It can make a difference in the lives of many; in fact, it can actually save lives. What lies in this magic box is a cure, a cure for cancer. It's a cure for whatever cancer you have."

 To me the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is like the key to this magic box. For all the money that they have raised for research I believe one day there will be a cure.

 Now that I am in remission you might wonder why it is I keep doing what I do with Team In Training. Even though things look good for me today I do what I do because there is always somebody where things don't look so good for them. The unfortunate ones that were diagnosed with APL 10 years prior to me were almost certainly given a death sentence. I am truly thankful to the research that was done that has given me life.

 I do what I do because the medicine that saved my life was very bad for my body. The ultimate goal is a cure but I will always do my best to raise awareness and money to further fund research that can lead to better treatments that are less harmful to patients. Though I'm thankful to be alive, I can't help but worry that I may relapse or end up with complications from all the chemotherapy I had. One side effect from one of my chemo drugs was that it may cause a secondary leukemia. Something else I worry about from taking my chemo drugs is ending up with anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy which can lead to congestive heart failure.

 I do what I do for those that have lost their lives prematurely. I do what
I do for those currently facing the hardest, most difficult time of their life. And I will do what I do till I can do no more.

~Natalie"


Meeting Natalie today you would never know her struggle. She completed a half Ironman called "Barb's Race" in July 2011. The event was a unique opportunity for women to do a half distance triathlon that raises money to support women facing a cancer diagnosis. Athletes swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles, and ran 13.1 miles. The most amazing part....Natalie was only 3 months out of Chemotherapy! 

Natalie is truly an inspiration to me and others that she meets. Please help her and other mothers continue to watch their children grow up by donating today.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Meet Elise!

A great big thank you to all of you who have donated so far. There is still time left to donate. You can donate directly to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society using the donate button on the side. Or you can go to our Donate page at the top and donate using PayPal. We have an amazing group of authors signed up so far and it's continuing to grow everyday.
 

If you are curious about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and what they do watch this video about Elise. She wants to tell you about the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and what they do for people and families.