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- Posted Friday September 7, 2012
Stand Up To Cancer features TGen projects in its third star-studded broadcast on Sept. 7
Live, one-hour primetime fundraising event to air
commercial-free simultaneously on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and cable
channels
July 11, 2012
Building on two historic fundraising telecasts in 2008 and 2010,
groundbreaking grassroots movement Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a
program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), will return
to primetime television on Sept. 7.
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is the
recipient of two SU2C grants: one as a co-leader of the new
SU2C-MRA Melanoma Dream Team, and another as co-leader of SU2C's
ongoing Pancreatic Cancer Dream Team.
Executive producers Gwyneth Paltrow and Joel Gallen of Tenth
Planet Productions will join Stand Up To Cancer's production team
to deliver a one-of-a-kind show featuring performances from top
recording artists, and celebrities from film, television and sports
engaging viewers with powerful stories and a moving
call-to-action.
This star-studded appeal will continue to build public support for
groundbreaking translational research accelerating the delivery of
new therapies to patients, getting them from the "bench to the
bedside" as quickly as possible. SU2C brings together scientists
from different disciplines across various institutions to
collaborate.
ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC are donating one hour of simultaneous
commercial-free primetime for the nationally televised fundraising
special on September 7, to be broadcast live from the Shrine
Auditorium in Los Angeles. HBO, HBO Latino, Bio, LMN (Lifetime
Movie Network), Logo, MLB Network, mun2, Palladia and VH1 have also
committed to carry the Stand Up To Cancer telecast, with other
cablers expected to, as well. The program will include a celebrity
phone/multi-media bank that will allow viewers to interact with
participating talent. Viewers will also be able to donate via
text-to-give and at standup2cancer.org. One hundred percent of all
public donations will go directly to cancer research.
One in two men and one in three women in the U.S. are expected to
be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes, and almost eight
million people worldwide die from cancer each year.
"This broadcast has become a global call-to-action for all those
touched by cancer," Paltrow said. "Like so many people, I know what
it's like to lose a family member to this disease, and I'm honored
to stand up in my father's memory."
Gallen previously produced three extremely successful televised
fundraising specials: "America: A Tribute to Heroes" (after 9/11),
"Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast," and "Hope
For Haiti Now." Music was a key element of each. He also
produced and directed the "25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame Concert."
"Music and its ability to heal, unite and motivate will play a
central role in this year's show, as will the stories of people
affected by cancer and how SU2C is changing their lives," Gallen
said.
"It's an honor to build on the terrific legacy Laura Ziskin
established with the previous two broadcasts."
The legendary film producer Laura Ziskin, who was a member of the
SU2C Executive Leadership Council, executive produced the first two
telecasts. Ziskin lived with breast cancer for seven years before
it took her life in June of 2011.
"Stand Up To Cancer demonstrates the power of the entertainment
community to help unite the public in support of a crucial cause
that affects us all," said SU2C Executive Leadership Council Member
Sherry Lansing, who also established the Sherry Lansing Foundation
and is Board Chair of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. "We're
very grateful to Gwyneth and Joel for leading the charge this year,
and continuing to foster this important movement."
SU2C was founded on the belief that this is a pivotal juncture
with the potential for transformative progress in cancer research
because of two trends: breakthroughs made in our understanding of
the basic science of cancer, and technological advances that enable
us to translate them into new treatments. Today's cancer
researchers need additional funding to fulfill the promise of
life-saving discoveries, and Stand Up To Cancer engages the public
to support their work.
"We set out to convince the public that this is a moment of great
promise in cancer research, and that each and every person can play
a role in helping the scientists who are working so hard to end
this terrible disease," said Stand Up To Cancer Executive
Leadership Council Member Katie Couric. "Only four years into
our work, we are delighted with the results. Our SU2C Dream Teams
of scientists have made important strides, all for the benefit of
patients, and we are excited to share that progress through the
show."
Talent participation in the 2012 SU2C broadcast will be announced
throughout the summer. Past participants in the SU2C broadcasts
include: Jennifer Aniston, Christina Applegate, Billie Joe
Armstrong of Green Day, Lance Armstrong, Halle Berry,
Beyoncé, Jack Black, Mary J. Blige,
Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Katie Couric, Sheryl Crow,
Ellen DeGeneres, Michael Douglas, Kirsten Dunst, Melissa Etheridge,
Jimmy Fallon, Fergie, Jennifer Garner, Charlie Gibson, Salma Hayek,
Ken Jeong, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, Lady Antebellum, Jay
Leno, Laura Linney, Tobey Maguire, Martina McBride, Gwyneth
Paltrow, Jim Parsons, Keanu Reeves, Rihanna, Robin Roberts, Seth
Rogen, Adam Sandler, Diane Sawyer, Ryan Seacrest, Will Smith, Eric
Stonestreet, Meryl Streep, James Taylor, Carrie Underwood, Sofia
Vergara, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Brian Williams, Reese
Witherspoon, Stevie Wonder, Renée Zellweger, the late Patrick
Swayze and others.
The first two SU2C telecasts took place on September 5, 2008 and
September 10, 2010, and have been viewed in more than 190
countries. To date, more than $180 million has been pledged for
SU2C's innovative cancer research. Since 2008, SU2C has made grants
to seven multi-disciplinary "Dream Teams" of researchers as well as
to 26 young innovative scientists who are undertaking high-risk,
potentially high-reward projects to end the reign of cancer as a
leading cause of death in the world today. Sixty-eight
institutions are currently involved.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world's
largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer
research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer, is the
scientific partner of Stand Up To Cancer. The AACR is responsible
for the scientific review, grants administration, and scientific
oversight of SU2C research projects in conjunction with the SU2C
Scientific Advisory Committee, led by Nobel Laureate Phillip A.
Sharp, Ph.D., institute professor at the David H. Koch Institute
for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. The SU2C funding model has fostered collaboration and
innovation, and the unprecedented sharing of ideas and pooling of
resources across institutions. Dr. Sharp calls SU2C's revolutionary
approach "the best dollar spent on cancer research in the
country."
Collectively, the research underway through the SU2C Dream Team
projects has the potential to impact the diagnosis and treatment of
a wide range of cancers in adults and children across ethnicities
including pancreatic, breast, ovarian, skin, cervical, uterine,
brain, lung, prostate, rectal and colon, leukemia and lymphoma, all
of which collectively represent approximately two-thirds of all
U.S. cancer deaths. Below are short descriptions of the seven Dream
Teams:
The SU2C-MRA Melanoma Dream Team: Funded jointly with the Melanoma
Research Alliance, this Dream Team - co-led by TGen President Dr.
Jeffrey Trent - is investigating the utility of
personalized/targeted therapy in patients with BRAF Wild-Type
(BRAFwt) metastatic melanoma - a subtype of melanoma for which
there are currently few treatment options. The team hopes that an
individualized medicine approach to the treatment of BRAFwt
metastatic melanoma will not only lead to therapeutic benefit for
this patient population, but may also be beneficial to many other
tumor and disease types.
The SU2C Pancreatic Cancer Dream Team: This SU2C Dream Team -
co-led by TGen Physician-In-Chief Dr. Daniel Von Hoff - has gained
important insight into how the pancreatic tumor fuels itself, and
is testing new ways of cutting off the fuel supply. One trial
therapy uses one drug to decrease the dense cellular layer
surrounding the cancer so that a second drug can kill the cancer
cells, and this drug combination has shown a high rate of
substantial tumor shrinkage. Additionally, the Dream Team is
studying a glutamine imaging agent that can be used during the PET
scans of pancreatic patients to monitor the cancer growth and to
validate whether a treatment is working. The Dream Team is also
aggressively developing molecular profiles of patients' tumors in
order to identify potential druggable targets in patients for whom
standard therapies have not helped.
The SU2C Epigenetics Dream Team: The epigenome refers to, in a
sense, the "software" packaging that allows the "hard drive" of DNA
to provide information for all cells in the body, and their genes,
to carry out their specific functions. When this software behaves
abnormally, it sends inaccurate signals and actually causes
cancer. Manipulating this epigenetic material or reversing
how it's behaving can attack the cancer itself. This SU2C
Dream Team tested a combination of epigenetic drugs in clinical
trials and saw tumors shrink in a group of patients with non-small
cell lung cancer, who had previously been treated, unsuccessfully,
with three different chemotherapy regimens. This was the first-ever
trial to show a bona-fide clinical response to epigenetic therapy
in a solid tumor. The use of this treatment has been expanded into
breast and colon cancer trials, and early lab results are extremely
promising. In addition, the Dream Team observed responses to
subsequent therapies in their patients, leading them to hypothesize
that the epigenetic therapy may sensitize patients to other agents.
If these early findings are borne out, they have the potential to
save tens of thousands of lives.
The SU2C PI3K Pathway Dream Team: This SU2C Dream Team is studying
a group of genes involved in cell growth. These genes make up an
information pathway that, when broken, can allow cells to grow
uncontrollably. The team is enrolling patients with these
phosphoinositide PI3- kinase (PI3K) mutations into clinical trials
to test combinations of drugs to attack breast, ovarian and
endometrial cancers. The goal of this Dream Team is to discover
approaches that will predict which women's cancers will respond
positively to a drug that inhibits the PI3K pathway. The Dream Team
has nine clinical trials underway to determine which patients will
respond to PI3K inhibitors, to identify the drug combinations that
will be most effective and to determine the best combination
therapies for preventing drug resistance.
The SU2C Breast Cancer Dream Team: Breast cancer currently
claims the lives of 40,000 women in the United States each year. In
addition to developing more effective, less toxic medications for
the three major breast cancer subtypes, the team is addressing
cancer cells' ability to become resistant to therapies that are
initially effective, which is one of the primary obstacles to
successful treatment. Understanding resistance opens the door
to developing new therapeutic agents to overcome this critical
problem.
The SU2C Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) Chip Dream Team: This SU2C
Dream Team developed a microfluidic chip -- smaller than a business
card -- that detects and captures cancer cells circulating in our
blood. The chip is sensitive enough to find one single cancer cell
among the one billion normal cells contained in a small amount of a
patient's blood. Four institutions within the Dream Team have
utilized the chip to help guide treatment decisions in clinical
trials, as it provides valuable insight into a therapy's
effectiveness through real-time tracking of the cancer. The team is
now using the CTC technology to investigate the role of circulating
tumor cells in the development of prostate cancer metastasis.
The SU2C-PCF Prostate Dream Team: Like other types of
cancer, Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) is not a
homogeneous disease. The diversity in the genetic makeup of each
individual's cancer may explain why therapies that work for some
patients seem inefficient for others. This Dream Team -- funded
jointly with the Prostate Cancer Foundation -- will utilize the
power of so-called next-generation sequencing technology to decode
the cancer genomes of 500 patients with CRPC, enrolled in four
clinical trials. Armed with information about the genetic makeup of
these patients' individual cancers, the Dream Team will search for
biomarker predictors of sensitivity to specific therapies, as well
as predictors of resistance to them. The hope is that this
approach, often referred to as "personalized medicine", will lead
to more effective and lasting treatments, and potentially spare the
patients from unnecessary treatments that provide little or no
benefit.
For more detailed information about the Dream Teams, individual
Innovative Research Grants and other Stand Up To Cancer activities,
www.standup2cancer.org fosters an online community for everyone
affected by cancer, with various ways for people to share opinions
and support, view video updates, contribute, and learn of ongoing
initiatives and progress in the fight against the disease. Features
of the website include The Constellation: for a dollar donation or
more, users can launch a star in honor of anyone who has received a
cancer diagnosis; The SU2C Blog: diverse content describing
cutting-edge research, offering unique perspectives of cancer
survivors, researchers, and patient advocates; and The Grassroots
Toolkit: providing tools for community members to fundraise through
SU2C Teams, Races, Clubs, or Events.
SU2C social media also provides a variety of opportunities to
interact with SU2C, support those in the fight, and contribute to
SU2C's efforts. Social channels include a thriving SU2C
Facebook community of 850,000 fans, SU2C's YouTube channel with 400
videos, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Crowdrise, and many more.
Viewers can begin standing up to cancer now by becoming a fan of
SU2C on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/su2c, by following SU2C on
Twitter at @SU2C http://twitter.com/su2c, subscribing to SU2C's
YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/su2cor by following SU2C
on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/101641624610817811232.
To view our online tune-in video, please visit
http://youtu.be/7O_P_Fr4S1E, which is also available for embed
within your blog or site.
# # #
About the Stand Up To Cancer Initiative
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) -- a program of the Entertainment
Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)3 charitable organization --
raises funds to hasten the pace of groundbreaking translational
research that can get new therapies to patients quickly and save
lives. In the fall of 2007, a group of women whose lives have all
been affected by cancer in profound ways began working together to
marshal the resources of the media and entertainment industries in
the fight against this disease.
Members of the SU2C Executive Leadership Council (ELC) include
Cancer Advocate and Television Journalist Katie Couric; Sherry
Lansing, Chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's
Board of Directors and founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation;
EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen; EIF Senior Vice President
Kathleen Lobb; Rusty Robertson
and Sue Schwartz of the
Robertson Schwartz Agency; Pamela Oas Williams, President of Laura
Ziskin Productions and Executive Producer of Stand Up To Cancer's
In-House Production Team, and Nonprofit Executive Ellen Ziffren.
All of the ELC members are co-producers of the 2012 televised
special. The late Laura Ziskin, executive producer of both
the Sept. 5, 2008 and Sept. 10, 2010 broadcasts, was also a member
of the ELC. SU2C was formally launched on May 27, 2008. Sung
Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C's president and CEO since
2011.
Founding donor Major League Baseball has provided both financial
support and countless opportunities to build the Stand Up To Cancer
grassroots movement by encouraging fans all over the country to get
involved.
Other major SU2C donors include Sidney Kimmel, the country's
largest individual contributor to cancer research; Bloomberg
Philanthropies; Cancer Research Institute; Cancer Treatment Centers
of America; Genentech; MasterCard; Melanoma Research Alliance; The
Safeway Foundation; Prostate Cancer Foundation; Wallis Annenberg
& The Annenberg Foundation; Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline; Pfizer;
Oakland A's Owner/Managing Partner Lew Wolff; Comcast;
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Philips Electronics; Steve
Tisch; The Island Def Jam Music Group and many others.
In addition to ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC and numerous cablers, other
significant SU2C supporters include AOL, Bonnier Corporation, Condé
Nast Media Group, eBay Inc., Facebook, Hearst Corporation, Hulu,
iTunes, Los Angeles Times, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia,
Meredith Corporation, The New York Times Company, Rodale, Time Inc,
WebMD, Yahoo! and YouTube. For more information, visit
www.standup2cancer.org.
About the Entertainment Industry Foundation
Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry
Foundation (EIF), the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that
serves as the collective philanthropy for the television and film
businesses. EIF has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to
support programs addressing critical health, education and social
issues. For more information, visit www.eifoundation.org.
About the AACR
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research
(AACR) is the world's first and largest professional organization
dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent
and cure cancer. AACR's membership includes 34,000 laboratory,
translational and clinical researchers; population scientists;
other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in
more than 90 countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of
expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the
prevention, biology, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. As the
Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR provides expert
peer review, grants administration and scientific oversight of
individual and team science grants in cancer research that have the
potential for near-term patient benefit. The AACR actively
communicates with legislators and policymakers about the value of
cancer research and related biomedical science in saving lives from
cancer. For more information about the AACR, visit
www.AACR.org.
About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a
Phoenix-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting
groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at
TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer,
neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of
translational research where investigators are able to unravel the
genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with
collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen
believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency
and effectiveness of the translational process. For more
information, visit: www.tgen.org.