Impact - The Jimmy Fund

V Foundation grant advances
personalized cancer care
Jim Valvano, former North Carolina State University basketball coach and
award-winning broadcaster, believed passionately that money was needed
for cancer research.
“It may save my children’s lives. It may save someone you love,” he said. The
words ring as true in 2010 as they did in 1993 when he and ESPN launched The
V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Diagnosed in June 1992 with
an advanced cancer of unknown
origin, Valvano died within a year,
but he left behind an extraordinary
legacy: a foundation that has
raised $95 million, awarded more than 350 grants to researchers nationwide, and
brought us closer to a world without cancer.
Continuing its longstanding relationship with Dana-Farber, The V Foundation
recently awarded Rameen Beroukhim, MD, PhD, $200,000 to further his research
in cancer genomics.
“Dr. Beroukhim is a prime example of our V Scholar Program at its best,” said
Nick Valvano, CEO of The V Foundation. “By investing in promising researchers
like Dr. Beroukhim, we hope to accelerate the impact of their contributions to
cancer discovery and care.”
The V Foundation grant enables Beroukhim to continue his investigation
of genetic alterations—specifically, extra copies of certain genes—across all
types of cancer to identify the mutations that are contributing most to cancer
development. The next phase of Beroukhim’s research will take advantage of
rapidly evolving technology, which allows researchers to sequence DNA even
in small tissue samples, to determine which of the mutations are present in a
patient’s tumor.
Beroukhim explained, “With this knowledge in hand, we can personalize
medicine, selecting therapies based upon the genetic profile of each patient’s
tumor. I am tremendously grateful to The V Foundation for its support.” n
Leading the way
Saunders helps DFCI researchers
explore underlying causes of
non-smoking lung cancer
Nearly two decades ago,
Roger Saunders was
forced to confront a
medical mystery when his first
wife, Nina—a 57-year-old nonsmoker—was
diagnosed with
lung cancer.
Nina’s Dana-Farber physician,
Robert J. Mayer, MD, explained
that 10 – 15 percent of lung
cancers arise in non-smokers—a
statistic that still holds true today.
Equally puzzling is that nonsmoking
women are two to three
times more likely to develop lung
cancer than non-smoking men.
After Nina died in 1991,
Saunders remained connected
to the Institute and became a
Roger and Norma Saunders have established the
Saunders Family Research Fund to bolster studies into
thoracic oncology at DFCI.
member of Dana-Farber’s Hematologic Oncology Visiting Committee in 1999.
Inspired by the great strides Dana-Farber scientists have made in understanding
and treating blood cancers, Saunders began to wonder whether similar advances
could help solve the mystery of Nina’s illness.
Now, Saunders and his current wife, Norma, have made a major contribution
to Mission Possible: The Dana-Farber Campaign to Conquer Cancer. Their gift
supports non-smoking lung cancer research by Dana-Farber’s Matthew Meyerson,
MD, PhD, co-director of the Center for Cancer Genome Discovery. The studies
are directed by Mayer—now the faculty vice president for Academic Affairs at
Dana-Farber and the Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard
Medical School.
“Dana-Farber is an international resource, and I want to support the
important work going on there,” said Saunders. “In particular, I hope this gift
will shed some light on why lung cancer affects people who have never smoked.”
Meyerson’s discovery of genetic mutations fueling some non-smoking lung
cancers is already shaping the way these patients are treated.
“This gift will help us learn even more about the genetic roots of this poorly
understood disease,” he said. n
GET ON THE RIGHT COURSE TO FIGHT CANCER SM
Founded in 1999, the Dana-Farber Leadership Council (DFLC) is an all-volunteer
organization dedicated to advancing the Institute’s lifesaving work in research and
patient care through advocacy, financial support, and leadership. On Feb. 4, DFLC
Co-chairs Jeff Goldstein (right) and Russell Norris announced that this mission had
been bolstered in 2009 by the more than $460,000 raised in support of the Dana-
Farber Leadership Council Presidential Initiatives Fund.
At the reception celebrating this achievement, DFLC members were recognized for
their hard work in raising funds for Dana-Farber through the DFLC Annual Fund and
their participation in several events, including the Boston Marathon ® Jimmy Fund
Walk, Rally Against Cancer SM , and the Dana-Farber Leadership Council Golf Tournament.
Patient speaker Paul Salines and Bambi Mathay, a massage therapist in the
Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber, spoke to the
tangible progress made possible by this success, spurring the DFLC’s motivation
to continue its fundraising efforts in 2010 and beyond.
RATHER
BE GOLFING?
FIND OUT HOW YOUR FAVORITE PASTIME
CAN HELP CANCER PATIENTS EVERYWHERE
JimmyFundGolf.org
866-521-GOLF
12
Impact SPRING 2010