The 12th Pediatric and Wildtype GIST Clinic was held May 21 to 23, 2014 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Coordinated by Dr. Sosipatros Boikos, and based out of the NIH Pediatric Oncology Department under the direction of Dr. Lee Helman, the Clinic is collaboration between clinicians and researchers to collect data, investigate and develop treatment for GIST patients who do not have either c-KIT or PDGFRA mutation.
On Saturday, May 17th in the Caesars Palace poker room in Las Vegas, the Poker For Hope charity tournament took place, benefiting Tia’s Hope, The Life Raft Group, and Phase One Foundation. Poker for Hope was started by these three non-profit cancer support organizations with ONE goal in mind…A CURE!
A recent study by Margaret von Mehren, MD and Dr. Natthapol Songdej of Fox Chase Cancer Center discusses the role of new treatments for GIST
In December, 2013, the Life Raft Group launched its “We Are the Cure” campaign to fund GIST research in response to the shrinking pool of available funds. As a rare disease, GIST research is impacted more than other more common cancers like breast and colon. Institutions like the National Cancer Institute are funding just four to five percent of all research proposals which means that a rare cancer like GIST is lost amongst the roughly 200 cancers competing for funding.
The future of cancer treatment relies on patient enrollment in clinical trials. In a recent Chicago Tribune article, a patient story is highlighted to illustrate the important role clinical trials play in cancer treatment, not only in [...]
There are multiple costs associated with cancer treatment. The emotional cost of cancer is obvious: fear and anxiety become constant companions. The economic cost is less apparent initially, as the patient and their support team [...]
It’s hard to believe that 12 years have passed since the Life Raft Group officially became a non-profit organization. We have accomplished so much during that time, and look forward to accomplishing more, keeping in [...]
Two recent articles highlight the need to focus attention on cancers that have previously been less widely acknowledged by both funding and attention by the general public. The first article from the Genetic Engineering [...]
In preparation for July 13th's GIST Awareness Day we have invited top advocates to share their best strategies on how to campaign for change and raise awareness about GIST.
In a recent article from Biomed Central, the importance of epigenomics and the Human Genome Project and more recent cancer- focused initiatives are discussed. A new paradigm being explored is the idea of C2c (cancer [...]
