In search of some HEROES

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.

Coping With Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma

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

Researchers are vital for a CURE

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)

Light The Night 2009 Walksites

Friends of Heroes is a national Light the Night Friends and Family team for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society .

Register here: http://pages.lightthenight.org/2009/friendsofheroes

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

• Find your local team
• Register for the walk
• Start an affiliate team

2009 Walksites & Dates

(Open for full list of cities) More »

Tina Fey Announced as 2009 Light The Night Walk National Spokesperson

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is excited to announce that actress Tina Fey is lending her face and fame to help in the fight against blood cancers as the 2009 National Spokesperson for the LLS Light The Night Walk.

Tina Fey is an American writer, comedian, actress, and producer. She has won five Emmys, three Golden Globes, and three SAG Awards. Fey is best known for her work on Mean Girls, Saturday Night Live, her impersonation of Alaskan Governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and her work on 30 Rock, a situation comedy loosely based on her experiences at Saturday Night Live. Fey was also selected by Barbara Walters as one of America’s “10 most fascinating people of 2008.”

As National Spokesperson for the 2009 Light The Night Walk, Fey urges communities to “Walk the Talk” and join the fight against blood cancer through Light The Night Walks happening this fall across the country. “When you or someone you love has cancer, it can turn your world upside down and leave you in a dark and lonely place,” says Fey. “But there’s something you can do to bring light and hope to thousands of people battling blood cancers and their families. You can participate in Light The Night Walk and raise funds for lifesaving cancer research.”

Walks take place in communities across the U.S. and Canada, as walkers and teams of families, friends and co-workers come together for an evening overflowing with emotion and caring. The Light The Night Walk is open to the public. Teams and individuals are encouraged to pre-register and raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society throughout the summer months preceding the Walk. The funds will support vital life-saving research and patient services to support the nearly 900,000 Americans living with blood cancers.

More than a Walk, Light The Night includes music, entertainment, food and children’s activities for everyone to enjoy. Walkers carry illuminated balloons to spread awareness about the need to fund research to find a cure for blood cancer. Supporters carry red balloons, survivors carry white, and those who have lost a loved one to cancer carry a gold balloon in their memory. The event is supported by many local businesses who form Walk teams or offer corporate sponsorship. Corporate sponsorship and in-kind food donation packages that include a variety of marketing benefits are available. You can join Friends of Heroes and start making a difference today! For more information about the Light The Night Walk and how to participate, visit www.LightTheNight.org.

About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Eastern N.C. Chapter serves patients battling leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma. The organization raises money to fund research leading to a cure for blood cancers and to enhance the quality of life for local patients through services such as family support groups, educational programs and financial assistance. Since its founding in 1949, LLS has invested more than $600 million in research specifically targeting leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. For more information about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, visit www.lls.org.

TAP Advancing Clinical Trials

The LLS Therapy Acceleration Program’s Academic Concierge Division continues to successfully leverage LLS research investments by helping select LLS-funded academic investigators move new therapies toward market approval. On April 22, 2009, LLS will present one of its Academic Concierge projects, headed by Principal Investigator Aaron D. Schimmer, F.R.C.P.C., M.D., Ph.D., Ontario Cancer Institute (shown here), at a meeting with Health Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and discuss next steps toward opening a Phase I clinical trial.  Barring any concerns from Health Canada, the program is on track to open LLS’s first AC Division clinical trial in the fall of 2009.

In conjunction with the LLS National Board of Directors meeting held March 13th in Newark, N.J., the Therapy Acceleration Program Governance Committee reviewed the progress of the Cleveland Clinic partnership in the Clinical Trials Program Division and approved a third LLS-supported trial to open at the Clinical Trial Center for Hematologic Malignancies.  This Phase I/II trial will combine two approved therapies, Lenalidomide and Rituximab, for maintenance therapy following high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Also exciting is news that the Cleveland Clinic will utilize three of its community treatment centers when it becomes a trial site for LLS’s partner, Aegera Therapeutics, and the ongoing Phase I/II trial of a new drug (AEG35156). The Cleveland Clinic’s main campus and three regional hospital centers will begin recruiting patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma or follicular lymphoma for treatment with Aegera’s AEG35156, that inhibits a molecule called X-Linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis (XIAP). This is a significant step toward LLS’s goal of enhancing access to clinical trials by “taking the trial to the patient.”

In order to leverage its successful clinical trial partnership with the Cleveland Clinic and to further address issues that currently limit clinical trial participation, LLS hosted a 1 1/2 day workshop this past February in San Francisco. Ron Levy, M.D., professor and chief, Division of Oncology at Stanford University, led discussions in which clinical trials experts reviewed ongoing models for early phase blood cancer treatment trials, including roles for-profit companies and government agencies can play, and considered how LLS can best use its resources to help increase participation in practice-changing trials. Workshop discussions provided many insights that will enable future partnerships for the LLS Clinical Trials Program.

Source: LLS.org (eNewsline)