Focus on IBC

News and Updates from the IBC Research Foundation

January 2008

 Be An Angel in 2008

Pewter Angel

Jerry Jackson, a pewter artist and friend of our own Ginny Mason, has created a unique collectors item as a tribute to all who have been touched by IBC. (www.jerryjacksonpewter.com)  He has captured the whimsical expression and details designed by Kyla, then 6, whose aunt is an IBC survivor (Pam Haschke.)  Kyla lives in California.  Together, Kyla and Jerry have created a unique work of art!

The angels are being generously donated to ibcRF to be used to generate financial support for the various programs and projects of the organization.

Rather than sell the angels, the ibcRF Board chose to offer an angel as a thank-you gift to those contributors who donate $300 or more, either in a single donation or installments over a year beginning November 1, 2006. There are still a few angels left, and they will be available on a first come first served basis.

Our heartfelt thanks to Jerry and to Kyla for capturing the hope, spirit and beauty of each ibcRF survivor and pathfinder in this delightful pewter angel.

 
 

SAVE THE DATE!!

National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund
 
Annual Advocacy Training Conference
Renaissance Hotel
 
999 9th Street NW, Washington, DC
 
April 26-29, 2008

 

The National Breast Cancer Coalition/Fund works to ensure that advocates have a voice everywhere breast cancer decisions are made.  Join your voice to ours in the fight to end breast cancer!

 

Register today!

 

www.stopbreastcancer.org

 

1-866-640-0969

 

 

Scholarships available according to need


 
 
IBC Research Foundation Activities
and
 Events of Interest to IBC Advocates
  

Jan. 25              IBC Educational Symposium: Translational

Genomics Research Institute (TGen)Phoenix, AZ

 

Jan. 27-28         National Breast Cancer Coalition Board

Meeting: Washington, DC

 

Jan. 28              National Cancer Institute (NCI) Biospecimen Best Practices Forum, Seattle, Washington http://www.nci-bestpracticies-forum.com/meeting/obbr/seattle2008/

 

Feb. 1               National Advisory Council for

Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Bethesda, MD

                                                

Feb. 2               Amelia Project: Indiana Breast Cancer Research Program, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN

 

Feb. 22-24         Annual Conference for Young Women

Affected by Breast Cancer, Jacksonville, FL

http://www.youngsurvivorsconference.org/?tr=y&auid=3308858

 

Feb. 28-29         Institute of Medicine Public Meeting on Evidence-basedMedicine: Clinical Data as Health Learning, Washington, D.C.

http://www.iom.edu/CMS/28312/RT-EBM/50023.aspx

Quick Links for ibc Patients and Caregivers ...
Read Previous Newsletters
http://www.ibcresearch.org/newsletters/
Learn the History of the ibcRF
Learn more about the ibcRF BioBank
 
 
Donate to the ibcRF
1-877-STOP-IBC
1-877-786-7422
 
 
Judah Folkman, Researcher, Dies at 74
 

Dr. Judah Folkman, a giant of cancer research who faced years of skepticism before his ideas led to successful treatments, died Monday in Denver. He was 74.

 

The cause was apparently a heart attack, his wife, Paula Folkman, said Tuesday. Dr. Folkman died at the airport, where he was changing planes on the way to a conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

Dr. Folkman, a professor at Harvard and director of the vascular biology program at Children's Hospital Boston, is considered the father of the idea that tumors can be kept in check by choking off the supply of blood they need to grow.

 

The approach is now embodied in several successful cancer drugs, most notably Avastin, by Genentech.

 

"His vision and ideas literally changed the course of modern medicine," said Dr. William Li, a former student of Dr. Folkman's, who is president of the Angiogenesis Foundation, an organization that promotes the promise of Dr. Folkman's approach. Angiogenesis refers to the formation of new blood vessels.

 

Dr. Folkman's work created a frenzy in 1998 when a front-page article in The New York Times reported how two drugs he had developed had eradicated tumors in mice. The article quoted Dr. James Watson, a Nobel laureate for discovery of the structure of DNA, as saying, "Judah is going to cure cancer in two years."

 

But some other scientists had trouble replicating Dr. Folkman's results, and the biotechnology company with rights to the drugs gave up on them to save money after the drugs did not seem to work as well in people as in mice.

 

While an improved version of one of those drugs eventually won approval in China, the drugs on the American market that work by blocking tumor blood supply were developed by others, not by Dr.

Folkman. But experts say those drugs might not exist but for Dr. Folkman's work.

 

"The controversies are minor," said Dr. David G. Nathan, president emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a longtime colleague of Dr. Folkman's. "The point is, he made the field."

 

Moses Judah Folkman was born in Cleveland on Feb. 24, 1933, the son of a rabbi, and was raised in various places in the Midwest. He often told of how when he was about 7 he would sometimes accompany his father on visits to hospital patients.

 

The excitement of those visits one day emboldened young Judah to tell his father that he wanted to be a doctor instead of a rabbi. "So,"

his father replied, "you can be a rabbi-like doctor."

 

Many of his colleagues say that the charismatic Dr. Folkman achieved that, with lectures that were amusing and enchanting.

 

"He had a list of patients who wanted information from him," said Robert Cooke, the author of "Dr. Folkman's War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer."

 

"Even when he was out of town," Mr. Cooke said, "he called 10 a night."

 

Dr. Folkman attended Ohio State University and then Harvard Medical School. Trained as a surgeon, he was chosen to be surgeon in chief at Children's Hospital Boston in 1967, when he was 34. But he devoted much of his time to research.

 

While working for the Navy in 1960 on blood substitutes, Dr. Folkman began experimenting with tumors and found that all grew to the same size. He hypothesized that the tumors could not grow beyond a certain size without a blood supply and that tumors must have some mechanism to induce the formation of blood vessels. He published his research in 1971.

 

At first, Dr. Folkman was largely ignored by other researchers who focused on cancer as a genetic disease.

 

But Dr. Folkman persisted and his ideas gradually gained support. A crucial moment came in the late 1980s when a scientist at the biotechnology company Genentech reported the discovery of vascular endothelial growth factor, a protein that spurs the formation of new blood vessels.

 

The company's drug, Avastin, developed to block that protein, was approved for use in 2004.

 

Avastin and Lucentis, another Genentech drug, have also had great success in restoring vision to people with eye diseases characterized by leaky blood vessels in the back of the eye.

 

Still, even now there is some controversy. Rakesh Jain, professor of tumor biology at Harvard Medical School, maintains, for instance, that Avastin and the other drugs actually do not work by choking off the flow of blood to the tumor. Rather, he said, they help fix the leaky, twisty blood vessels that feed tumors, thereby improving the delivery of cancer-killing chemotherapy drugs.

 

In addition to his wife, Paula, whom he married in 1960, Dr. Folkman is survived by two daughters, Marjorie Folkman of Manhattan and Laura Folkman Steuer of Menlo Park, Calif.; a brother, David, of Hillsborough, Calif.; a sister, Joy Folkman Moss of Rochester, N.Y.; and one granddaughter.

 

By ANDREW POLLACK

The New York Times

Published: January 16, 2008

 
Lilly Oncology on Canvas
Expressions of a Cancer Journey
 

Lilly Oncology On Canvas invites people from all over the world to express their feelings about cancer through art and in narrative.  People diagnosed with any type of cancer, their families and friends, cancer advocates, health care providers, including doctors and nurses are all eligible.

 

Launched in 2004, this program was conceived by Eli Lilly and Company as a way to honor the journey of those whose lives have been affected by cancer.  The rich tapestry of emotions conveyed in the pieces of art endures and provides hope and inspiration to others.

 

The second biennial competition in 2006 saw more than 2,000 pieces of art from 43 countries submitted by people diagnosed with cancer, their friends, family, and health care providers.  This rich and enduring collection of artwork traveled the world in 2007 and continues to touch the hearts and minds of people worldwide.

 

In recognition of the many voices that give this program resonance and meaning, Lilly Oncology presents the 2008 Lilly Oncology on Canvas Art competition and Exhibition in partnership with the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.

 

Entry deadline for the award is JUNE 30, 2008.  Entries received after this date will not be considered.  Winner will be announced in FALL 2008 in New York City with a media briefing and an exhibit of a select group of art.

 

ENTER NOW!  By participating in the Lilly Oncology on Canvas: Expression of a Cancer Journey International Art Competition and Exhibition, your artwork will inspire others, raise awareness of the challenges and triumphs that affect those diagnosed with cancer, and potentially raise money for your preferred cancer charity.

 

For more information on this program: 

 

Call 1-800-734-4131 or email: [email protected]  or write:  Anita Chernewski, CPR Worldwide, 220 E. 42nd St., 7th Floor, New York, NY  10017-5806