Posted by lynnesmith in The LLS Blog, 02 September 2014 · 55 views
Blood cancer isn't something most people want to talk about. In fact, we'd probably be happy to go our entire lives without ever giving it a second thought.
Unfortunately, with more than 1.1 million Americans living with (or in remission from) these diseases, most of us know someone who thinks about it every day.
The statistics are improving and promising research developments are announced every day, but we still have a long way to go. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) focuses on raising awareness every day but for September, Blood Cancer Awareness Month, we've set an even greater challenge - raising $300,000 in 30 days.
Think about these facts:
- Every three minutes, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed and there are few (if any) means of preventing or screening early.
- In 1964, a child’s chance of surviving acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood leukemia, was 3%. Today about 90% of children survive.
- Since the early 1960s, the survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled thanks to research and access to better treatments.
- Nearly 40 percent of new cancer therapies approved by the FDA between 2000 and 2013 were first approved for blood cancer patients.
- Multi-drug chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation were first successfully developed for blood cancer patients.
Last year alone, LLS invested nearly $80 million in cutting-edge research - bringing the total to more than $1 billion spent to advance cancer therapies and save lives. Yet, despite this progress, more than one third of blood cancer patients still do not survive five years after their diagnosis.
Currently, LLS-funded research teams at multiple institutions are testing different approaches to activate the immune system to kill cancer cells. They helped advance an antibody therapy that helps boost the immune system to attack cancer cells in patients with lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and are working to advance new FDA-approved targeted therapies to treat patients with CLL and other B-cell cancers.
To keep up this progress and achieve our goal of a world without blood cancers, we need to invest in more research to find cures. We need your help.
Please help us meet our goal. Donate today.
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