Impact - The Jimmy Fund

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The race to conquer cancer: Dana-Farber runners reach new milestone On a crisp and sunny October morning, a field of more than 5,000 worldclass athletes and running enthusiasts raced 13.1 miles along Boston’s famed Emerald Necklace park system during the 2009 B.A.A. Half Marathon®, presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. Of those participants, 471 race entrants laced up their running shoes as part of the official Dana-Farber team, sprinting to an all-time high fundraising total of more than $437,700—contributing to the more than $2 million raised through this event over the last seven years. “The B.A.A. is proud of its more than 20-year partnership with Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund to conquer cancer,” said Guy L. Morse III, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association. “The battle against cancer is a marathon in its own right, and we congratulate Dana-Farber as it moves closer to the finish line.” Members of the official Dana-Farber team in the B.A.A. Half Marathon prepare to take on the 13.1-mile course. The ninth annual B.A.A. Half Marathon celebrated its largest field of entrants, official starters, and finishers in its history, selling out entries within 26 hours. This year’s Dana-Farber team included runners from 21 states, as well as Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. Holding the finish line tape for the race’s men’s champion was DFCI patient partner Jaden Cabrera, 6, of Peabody, Mass., who was diagnosed in 2007 with Burkitt’s lymphoma. The team hero was Drew Pelletrino, 8, of Beverly, Mass., a DFCI patient partner diagnosed with lymphoma in 2005, who motivated the runners to go the extra mile in their training and fundraising efforts. “Drew and Jaden are endlessly inspiring individuals and living proof that the funds raised for the Jimmy Fund are making a significant difference in cancer care and research,” said Jimmy Fund Director Suzanne Fountain. n Four-time melanoma survivor provides support for Dana-Farber researcher When Emily “Luli” MacNaught first met Dana-Farber’s F. Stephen Hodi, MD, she knew she had found an important ally in her battle against melanoma. Intrigued by Hodi’s investigations on this relatively rare form of skin cancer, she and her husband later established the Malcolm and Emily MacNaught Fund for Melanoma Research to fuel the physicianscientist’s work. Recently, the couple reaffirmed their commitment to this mission by contributing another $100,000 to their fund. The gift also supports Mission Possible: The Dana-Farber Campaign to Conquer Cancer. “My wife is one of the lucky ones, but not everyone is so lucky,” Luli and Malcolm MacNaught are helping Dana- Farber’s F. Stephen Hodi, MD, study the molecular effects of a potential new therapy in melanoma patients. said Malcolm MacNaught, reflecting on the recent loss of a close friend to melanoma. “These studies are too important to be held up by a lack of funds.” The MacNaughts were inspired to expand their support when Hodi, now director of the Melanoma Center at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, told them about a new type of drug called a CDK inhibitor, which he plans to test as a potential therapy in melanoma patients. The gift will allow Hodi to monitor patient reactions to the drug on a molecular level, gathering information that will be critical to understanding how and why specific patients do or do not respond to this treatment. “If we want to learn which drugs work best for which patients, we have to do these types of studies,” said Hodi. “Unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard to get government funding for them, which is why private philanthropic support from people like the MacNaughts is so essential.” n Fashion-forward fundraising success The 11th annual Saks Fifth Avenue “Key To The Cure” shopping event was held Oct. 15 – 18 to benefit the all-volunteer Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The four-day event began in style with “Catwalk for the Cause” and a morning of fashion, fine food, and shopping with members of the Friends, their guests, and event sponsors modeling the hottest trends of the season. Saks pledged 2 percent of all sales during the weekend to help fight women’s cancers, raising more than $50,000 for the Gillette Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Above: Following opening remarks from event Co-chair Dana Gerson Unger, Friends board member Kristienne Rassiger showed off fall fashions during “Catwalk for the Cause.” 8 Impact SPRING 2010
Make your next gift online at dana-farber.org/give. Research holds the key: Anonymous donor fuels lung cancer study Recognizing the vital role that intense scientific research can play in preventing and curing devastating diseases like lung cancer, a donor wishing to remain anonymous recently gave $2 million to fund the investigations of Pasi Jänne, MD, PhD, and his team in the Carole M. and Philip L. Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber. “As someone who has supported other hospital programs, I had a strong desire to bring my philanthropy over to this particular area of research,” said the donor. “I truly believe that scientific research is the key to curing health problems and to learning how to best prevent and treat diseases like lung cancer.” In the U.S. alone, this disease is diagnosed in 215,000 people annually, 15 percent of whom are never-smokers––people who have smoked less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. Recent discoveries have created a paradigm shift in looking at lung cancer and recognizing that it is not just one disease. The focus has now turned toward sub-classifying it based on genetic and biological composition in order to make an accurate diagnosis and develop effective treatments. An ongoing search One example of this new way of understanding lung cancer is the 2004 discovery by Jänne and his Dana-Farber colleagues, Lowe Center Director Bruce Johnson, MD, and Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, co-director of the Center for Cancer Genome Discovery, of the role that mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene play in lung cancer, specifically that of never-smokers. They found that in this group of patients, EGFR has been altered in such a way that causes tumors to grow; it is this EGFR finding that is now driving Jänne’s work to further classify the disease. “We’re conducting a comprehensive analysis of never-smokers as a subgroup of lung cancer patients,” said Jänne. “By recognizing that genetic alterations occur in about half of our patients who don’t smoke, there is an expectation that there may be other mutations out there as well.” EGFR mutations are found in 35 percent of never-smokers, with 10 percent harboring another genetic alteration (translocation) in the ALK gene. There are current drugs for both genetic alterations and, so far, they have been very effective. Jänne’s goal is to identify the mutations in the remaining 55 percent of patients, and ultimately match specific genetic mutations to therapies that target each altered gene. This anonymous gift supports Jänne’s and his colleagues’ work by enabling them to launch clinical studies with a laboratory component to further Dana-Farber’s Pasi Jänne, MD, PhD, is working to further classify subtypes of lung cancer by identifying genetic mutations in order to develop more effective treatments. define the genetic variations that occur in different subtypes of lung cancer. By doing so, they can develop a new generation of drugs to target these variations, creating novel, personalized treatment protocols for patients. “Support of this type of research at the Institute is what made our initial discovery of the EGFR mutation possible,” said Jänne. “I am incredibly grateful for this tremendous commitment, which will enable us to build on what we know and advance our understanding and treatment of lung cancer.” n Men unite in the fight against women’s cancers After losing his wife, Amy, to ovarian cancer, Sheldon Simon became passionately involved in conquering women’s cancers. Simon immediately recognized there were scores of men willing to join him and help their own wives, mothers, and daughters. He answered this call by creating the Dana- Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) Men’s Collaborative to Cure Women’s Cancers, which supports breast and gynecologic cancer research. Hoping to set the tone for support as the collaborative’s chairman, Simon and his wife, Ruth Moorman, have pledged the program’s first major contribution: a $100,000 gift. The gift also honors Moorman’s mother, who is currently battling ovarian cancer. “There is strength in numbers, and I hope that through DF/HCC’s member institutions, we can unite to honor the women we love and make a difference in others’ lives,” said Simon. The couple’s gift to the collaborative will support cutting-edge research and novel cancer treatments, including PARP inhibitors, which are a new class of chemotherapy drugs that show promise in certain breast and ovarian cancers. In particular, women who harbor disease-causing changes in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes may receive special benefit from PARP inhibitors. Sheldon Simon and his wife, Ruth Moorman, share a wish to conquer women’s cancers. “I am excited about getting men involved in the support of women’s cancers, and we will ensure funds raised support high-impact research anywhere in the cancer center. Research has changed the face of cancer treatment, and I am confident the collaborative will make a difference in the way women’s cancers are treated and, someday, cured,” said DFCI Women’s Cancers Program Director J. Dirk Iglehart, MD, the Anne E. Dyson Professor in Women’s Cancers at Harvard Medical School and Charles A. Dana Senior Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at Dana-Farber. n A taste of success Top restaurants across Western Massachusetts put their best fare forward Jan. 22 at the 20th annual Chefs for Jimmy, presented by Winer Levsky Group of UBS Financial Services, Inc., in honor of Neal Webber and the Kittredge Equipment Company. The theme of this year’s event was “Let’s Play MONOPOLY ® ,” with 27 participating eateries presenting dishes playing off the popular board game to the delight of the event’s more than 1,000 attendees. Though guests enjoyed an evening of fun and food, filling their plates and participating in silent auctions and prize drawings, the Jimmy Fund proved to be the biggest winner, as the event raised a final total of $109,000 to help conquer cancer, bringing its cumulative giving to more than $1 million. At the close of the event, Jimmy Fund Director Suzanne Fountain (center) and Event Manager Kelly See (right) accepted a check representing the event’s success from its organizers (left to right) Michael Katz, Barbara Sadowsky, an Institute trustee and Jimmy Fund Council of Western Massachusetts president, and Andrew Cohen. Impact SPRING 2010 9
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Impact - The Jimmy Fund

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