From the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website:
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world’s leading private organization funding blood cancer research. Our mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.
RESEARCH INVESTMENT
With advisory input from recognized biomedical research experts, LLS funds exemplary projects across the entire research continuum relevant to improved outcomes for blood cancer patients, from basic laboratory science through clinical trials, and from investigator-initiated research to private-sector drug development alliances. LLS is deliberate and purposeful in finding and supporting research that is most likely to help patients, as soon as possible.
To date, LLS has invested more than $750 million in research aimed at helping all blood cancer patients live longer, healthy lives. We will continue to support research through our innovative and integrated funding programs, until every patient has a safe and effective therapy. In fiscal year 2010, LLS supported research in the U.S., Canada, and 9 other countries with a total budget of approximately $72 million
Targeted therapy RESEARCH
Discovering the molecular abnormalities that cause particular types of blood cancer has been useful in diagnosis and risk stratification, and as foci for new “targeted drug” development. LLS-funded investigators have helped advance molecularly targeted treatments that can selectively kill blood cancer cells versus normal cells. Many of these new treatments benefit not only blood cancer patients, but also patients with other diseases. For example:
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Gleevec® was developed and FDA-approved for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), including children. It is now also approved for the treatment of patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive cases of acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), and for patients with a rare form of stomach cancer. Gleevec is being tested for patients with other cancers, including breast, nerve, brain, prostate, lung, thyroid and ovarian cancer, as well as mesothelioma and melanoma. Related, even more potent drugs, Sprycel® and Tasigna®, have now been approved for patients who do not benefit from Gleevec and are also being tested against a wide range of cancers.
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Rituxan® was the first FDA-approved, anti-cancer antibody drug, developed for patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including diffuse large B-cell and follicular B-cell lymphoma. Rituxan is now used to treat patients with many forms of lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), ALL and myeloma. It is also approved for treating patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis, and being studied as a treatment for other types of autoimmune diseases and cancers, and for chronic graft-versus-host disease, a serious long-term complication of bone marrow / stem cell transplantation.
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Velcade®, Thalidomid® and Revlimid® were developed and FDA-approved for patients with myeloma and are also helping patients with some forms of Hodgkin and NHL. One or more of these drugs are now being tested for patients with CLL, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and ALL, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), colorectal, head-and-neck, kidney, thyroid, liver, lung, pancreatic and prostate cancers.
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Dacogen® and Vidaza® are revolutionary new drugs that target small chemical, “epigenetic” additions on cancer-associated genes. These drugs are approved for MDS patients, can be safely used even in the frailest patients, and are also being developed for patients with ALL, AML, CML, CLL, and NHL, as well as for patients with kidney, colorectal, thyroid, head and neck, lung, prostate and ovarian cancers, other advanced solid tumors and melanoma.
