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The Light the Night season is fast approaching and it is the perfect time to remember WHY we are walking. Please join us by adding a comment to this post about why you are walking for Friends of Heroes, how you found us and what you would like to see in the coming years. Let get this party started!!!!
Friends of Heroes has a forum to keep in touch with the national team? Please join us at http://friendsofheroes.proboards80.com/index.cgi
This is a great way to find out what other teams are doing, to keep up and offer support to cancer patients and just chit chat.
Through out the years our team has had the chance to meet and support many children who have been battling a war against cancer. This war takes place in their tiny bodies. The word cancer is enough to scare anyone, and to say it to a child must be devastating, yet these children take it with their heads held high. These children are true heroes. They each deserve the honor of being named a hero.
This year, Friends of Heroes wants to honor these warriors who have battled more in their lives then most adults will ever endure. To nominate a child to be one of Friends of Heroes, Hero of the month, please send in their Name, Age, Parent/guardian’s e-mail, a quick story on this child and how they have touched your life to teamleaders@friendsofheroes.org
Please note that we can only accept nomiations that have the consent from the child’s parent or guardian.
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia, lymphoma or myloma, there is help for you.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, headquartered in White Plains, New York, provides a library of resources through their website and their Information Resource Center. You may feel helpless or overwhelmed with decisions. These free resources and support services are funded by generous donors to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
If you need assistance ordering free materials please call the LLS Information Resource Center at (800) 955-4572 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST or contact your local chapter.
For more information specifically related to childhood blood cancers, visit their Childhood Blood Cancers resource page.
The following excerpts are sample materials from their library:
Coping With Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma
Introduction
Families face uncertainty when they are told that their child has leukemia or lymphoma. It is a time filled with new people and situations, worries and change. It may help to learn that cancer survival rates for children have improved significantly during the last several decades due to new and better treatments. Doctors, nurses and scientists are working together around the world to continue to improve outcomes for children diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma - researchers continue to search for the causes, develop better treatments and tailor therapies to decrease long-term effects. Social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and other health professionals are also working to understand how to help children and families manage cancer and its treatment and maintain a good quality of life.
Continue reading by downloading the .pdf or order a free printed copy via the LLS online order form.
Learning & Living With Cancer
Introduction
For children with cancer and their parents, returning to school builds hope for the future. Attending school is a big part of feeling normal and productive. Yet, going back to school also brings new challenges to families whose main focus has been getting through treatment.
You may wonder:
- What challenges will my child face?
- What help is needed for my child to be successful?
- What laws protect my child?
- Where do I turn for help?
Continue reading by downloading the .pdf or order a free printed copy via the online order form.
Source: lls.org
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Tags: leukemia, lymphoma, myloma
Sagar Lonial, M.D. is associate professor, hematology/medical oncology at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Lonial, a recipient of a Translational Research Program grant from LLS, is studying a combination therapy for patients with myeloma and other blood cancers.
What is the biomedical problem/issue that you are trying to resolve?
The proteasome is a piece of cellular machinery that removes unnecessary proteins from cells. But in some blood cancers, such as myeloma, the proteasome may function abnormally. The targeted drug Velcade (bortezomib) works for many myeloma patients by inhibiting the proteasome. But myeloma and other cancer cells can resist being killed by Velcade. Our group is trying to better understand how cancer cells become resistant and if we can overcome that resistance, especially by making Velcade more effective in combination with other drugs.
What’s novel or innovative about your approach?
Our approach is novel because we are trying to choose drug combinations based upon preclinical evidence gathered in our laboratory studies, rather than just randomly combining available drugs. Our preliminary findings suggest that we can really improve the efficacy of Velcade for patients with myeloma by combining it with Zarnestra (tipifarnib), an experimental drug that has been shown to inhibit an enzyme that can cause excessive growth of cancer cells. Zarnestra really does not kill many myeloma cells when used alone, but the anti-myeloma effect of the combination is quite striking in laboratory tests.
How will your work one day help patients?
We are currently enrolling patients in an early phase clinical trial based upon our laboratory data, and have seen responses among patients with myeloma who were resistant to Velcade as a single agent. We are now testing higher dose levels and hope to show that the combination is measurably more effective in patients than Velcade alone, as is true in laboratory tests.
Are you close to clinical trials?
The trial is open; 23 patients have been enrolled so far.
I think the excitement is around the addition of these new agents in treatments for patients with newly diagnosed disease where combinations might be able to result in complete remissions, and possibly even durable complete remissions. In the setting of relapsed disease, new combinations may allow us to treat patients with lower doses of each respective agent to reduce side effects, or use standard dosing but with improved outcomes as measured by number and duration of responses.
What are some of your hobbies and non-research interests?
My hobbies are golf and wine tasting, only one of which I enjoy doing with my kids. I also enjoy traveling, which I am able to do a bit through the myeloma community.
Source: lls.org (eNewsLine)
Friends of Heroes is a national Light the Night Friends and Family team for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society .
We are looking for individual walkers and other Light The Night teams to affiliate with us. Join us and become part of an amazing team!
If you live in or near one of the following cities, we’d love to have you become a team captain! To become a team captain or to walk for our team, click here or you can contact Team Captain Relations, at tcrelations@friendsofheroes.org
(Open for full list of cities) More »
Friends of Heroes is a national Light the Night Friends and Family team. We are comprised of moms, dads, families and friends compelled to help find a cure for blood cancers.
Blood Cancer News
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