BCRF

Dr. Kipps’ Notes

At the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Dr. Kipps helped lead a discussion on the ‘Expanded Understanding of CLL Biology’. Educational sessions help to disseminate current research to other oncologists. Dr. Kipps also
wrote an educational manuscript, “Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Advances in Assessing Prognosis and Therapy.” Our goal is to make discoveries and to help others understand the signiﬁcance of discoveries.

Recent Interview: Web video

New BCRF News Letter Availble!

Welcome to the Blood Cancer Research Fund's (BCRF) website. The BCRF, has been established to enable research, training, and eduactional outreach. Find out what is going on in the BCRF and our latest efforts you can either download our latest newsletter or go to the NEWS section of the website

Download the FALL 2011 newsletter by Clicking HERE

Note From Dr. Kipps, Director of the BCRF

When the terrible news comes, it's often presented in singular terms: "You've got cancer." But cancer is not a single disease. Rather, it's more than 100 distinct afflictions that can involve virtually any type of tissue in the human body.

A diagnosis of breast cancer means something entirely different from one of prostate or skin cancer. The symptoms, treatments, and prognoses are disparate. Our knowledge of what causes cancer and how to effectively treat patients with any of the different types is wildly uneven. Some cancers can now be cured, or at least reduced to a chronic, manageable condition, though often the therapies employ mechanisms not entirely understood. Conversely, other cancers remain incorrigibly aggressive killers, resistant to any current therapy. In 1971, Richard Nixon famously declared a "war on cancer." He boldly predicted victory within five years.

Today, the American Cancer Society estimates almost 12 million Americans have some form of cancer. More than half a million Americans will die from cancer this year, roughly 1,500 every day. Cancer is the second leading cause of death after heart disease. Clearly, the war rages on.

To continue click HERE

Can scientists win the war against cancer?

Welcome to a guest essay by Thomas J. Kipps, interim director at the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego. Dr. Kipps says there are reasons to believe that, over the long term, scientists will be able to conquer cancer.

When the terrible news comes, it’s often presented in singular terms: “You’ve got cancer.” But cancer is not a single disease. Rather, it’s more than 100 distinct afflictions that can involve virtually any type of tissue in the human body.

For More Information Click HERE

Janet Kipps, R.D., Healthful Comfort Food

The cookbook "Healthful Comfort Food" by Janet Kipps RD,

contains over 70 nutrient-dense comfort-type recipes, as well as a concise nutrition guide. All proceeds go to the Blood Cancer Research Fund, to help the effort to cure Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. For a $40 donation you can receive a copy!!!!

If you would like to order a copy of Healthful Comfort Food please contact:

Alex Ramirez via email: r7ramirez@ucsd.edu

or by phone (858) 822-5635

Familial CLL Research

One of the interests of Dr. Laura Rassenti has been to study the causes of Familial Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). It has been known that a genetic component may affect the risk of developing CLL. Although most cases of CLL are sporadic, multiple cases of CLL may be found within a single family. There are numerous reports of families with multiple members having CLL. The risk is about 8-fold higher for individuals with relatives that have CLL compared to the general population. Afflicted individuals within such families often present at a younger age than most patients with CLL, suggesting that genetic factors in familial CLL contribute to this leukemia. However, the genetic factor(s) that contribute to Familial CLL are unknown and no susceptibility genes have yet been identified.

Clustering in the CLL families have been observed. For example, in one family a father and his four sons, two of whom are identical twins, have CLL. This suggests a non-random chance of developing CLL. To date no plausible environmental factors have been identified that could explain the clustering in families, thus supporting a possible genetic factor. Several genome-wide studies have been conducted. Although regions of interest have been identified on chromosomes 2, 5, 6, 11, and 18, no definitive susceptibility genes were identified on these particular chromosomes. Recently, through a large international genome-wide association study (GWAS), researchers have identified 7 genetic variants located on chromosomes 2, 6, 11, 15, and 19 in a large sample of subjects including hundreds of families.

We would like to collect biospecimens and exposure information from high-risk CLL families, which we define as those families that contain two or more living blood-related individuals affected with CLL. The data from the specimens obtained from these Familial CLL patients will be used to identify candidate genes of this malignancy and characterize the genetic risk of CLL.

To participate please call: 1 (877) FAM-4CLL or 1 (877) 326-4255

Recent interview with Dr. Rassenti: Click Here