Will You Light The Night?

For every light that shines, a shadow falls. – munk

Last year, 19 close friends and colleagues contributed $2,010 towards leukemia and lymphoma research. This year, my wife and I are walking again in the Boston Common to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Research program. What’s being researched? This caught my eye:

Multiple myeloma is a lethal malignancy for which cure remains elusive. Stem cell transplantation results in improved disease free survival but ultimately fails to prevent recurrence. A promising area of research is the use of cancer vaccines to educate the immune system to target and eliminate tumor cells. Studies demonstrate that the immune system is particularly sensitive to cancer vaccines following stem cell transplantation. We have developed a novel tumor vaccine involving the fusion of potent immune stimulating cells known as dendritic cells (DC) with a patient’s own tumor cells. The vaccine presents a wide array of tumor proteins to the immune system. Laboratory studies have shown that DC/myeloma fusions stimulate lymphocytes to recognize and kill myeloma cells.

A lot of the time, pleas for donations and contributions go the human route – here’s little Johnny who needs to be saved, please open your hearts and wallets. I call Bravo Sierra on that – it’s nice, but this shows you how your money is being used.

If you’re not biotech minded, cancer researchers are looking at treating cancer like the flu or any other communicable disease, using the body’s own immune system to fight tumors, rather than just pump someone full of drugs and hope it takes. How cool is that? Going with nature and natural defense mechanisms rather than trying to sidestep them.

Please continue to support innovative research (which will in turn save little Johnny) like this with your generous contribution to Light the Night by clicking here.