The ninth annual poker tournament, now known as the “Night to Fight Cancer” to benefit The Life Raft Group’s research programs was held at Midtown Loft on September 13, 2012. Board President Jerry Cudzil once again hosted this successful event to raise money and awareness so that someday soon we can have a cure.
How does a $2 million-a-year cancer research effort with a team of nine scientists keep pace with a $100 million-a-year project with a team of 200? Pretty well, it turns out. With the Cancer Genome Atlas project in the news lately—the New York Times recently reported on progress in its colon cancer work—we decided to compare some of its data with that of the Life Raft Group’s Research Team and its D-Day Project. Our research focuses on GIST.
Caring for someone suffering from an illness is hard, there’s no other way to put it. Most of the time it gets easier but in the beginning right after a surgery, it can be very emotionally draining and frightening. Caring for someone you love is even more so as there is an emotional connection, a deep desire to alleviate the pain and suffering we see in the eyes of the person whose bedside we are hovering over.
According to Dick Kinzig, organizer of the original group, “Six Life Rafters, two spouses and a daughter were able to make the meeting.” Since 2002 the group has been meeting three times a year at Wellness Place in Inverness, Illinois, 30 miles northwest of Chicago. Patients from all over the Chicago area including Central Illinois, NW Indiana, and Wisconsin have attended over the years.
For many years, wild-type GIST tumors were a mystery. In 2007, Barbara Pasini, J. Aidan Carney, Constantine Stratakis and colleagues identified the first mutations in pediatric GIST tumors in a protein called succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). Coding (instructions) for making the SDH protein is contained in four subunits (genes), SDHA, SDHB, SHDC and SDHD. The group, led by Constantine Stratakis, initially reported mutations in three of the four subunits; SDHB, SHDC and SDHD. SHDA remained a mystery.
On Thursday, June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a landmark law enacted in 2010 to improve the health of all Americans and control health care costs.
Two posters were presented by principal investigators in the Phase 2 and 3 trials of masitinib for the treatment of newly diagnosed GIST patients.
Much of what made Bill a wonderful person cannot be articulated, it can only be felt. The subtle generous and supportive nuances of his character and quiet strength of his convictions comforted and compelled every person in his life. Without the tongue of Chaucer or the pen of Shakespeare, how do you explain what makes a man great?
Francis James Benninger of Durham died December 26, 2008, in his 58th year. Francis was the husband of Bertha (Koeslag) and father of Cara, Kait and Aaron.
It is with great sadness that another could not slay the dragon called GIST. Lee fought hard, he was calm and steady during the entire battle. He lived with the dragon since July of 2001. He was an athlete; lean and ready, with perseverance and endurance. He tried all the medicines plus radiation but could not hold it at bay.
