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Research
Finding the answers to fight cancer
Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has invested more than $2.9 billion in cancer research. Today, the American Cancer Society funds more cancer research than any other private,
non-profit organization in the United States - second only to the federal government in total dollars spent.
Focused on funding new researchers from universities and research facilities around the world, the American Cancer Society is proud to have supported
38 scientists who later went on to win the Nobel Prize, considered the highest accolade any scientist can receive.
In the Midwest Division, the American Cancer Society currently funds grants totaling more than $10 million.
The ultimate goal of the American Cancer Society is to eliminate cancer by funding researchers who are ceaselessly searching for clues
that fit together to produce new treatments and prevention interventions that will make cancer a thing of the past.
Advances made by American Cancer Society researchers and scientists have led to major
breakthroughs:
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Identified smoking as the cause of lung cancer
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Developed combination chemotherapy to cure 82 percent of childhood leukemias
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Developed the Pap smear to detect cervical cancer
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Developed mammography to screen for breast cancer
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Combined lumpectomy and radiation to treat breast cancer
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Developed the PSA test for prostate cancer screening
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Developed 5-FU (chemotherapy) for colon cancer
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Created recombinant DNA and gene cloning
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Discovered cancer-causing oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes
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Discovered genes for inherited breast and colon cancer
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Developed tamoxifen to reduce risk of second or first breast cancer
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Developed monoclonal antibodies to treat breast cancer (Herceptin) and lymphoma
(Rituxan)
RESEARCH SAVES LIVES
A Researcher
In the early 1980s, the American Cancer Society awarded Joann Kurtzberg, M.D., a research grant. She had an idea about how blood taken from a newborn baby's umbilical cord might be used to replenish bone marrow. The Society went on to support Dr. Kurtzberg as she explored the possibility of the cord blood transplant. Her research helped advance the cord blood transplant procedure.
A Child
Around the same time, Bill and Penny Strother were starting a family that would grow to include five daughters. When their second youngest daughter, Caroline, fell ill and was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) at the age of two, the Strother family was terrified. Caroline began 20 long days of chemotherapy. At the end of her treatment, she seemed healthy. Bill and Penny allowed relief to replace fear.
But in May 1998, the Strother's fears returned as five-year-old Caroline relapsed. Caroline's doctors found that 90% of her bone marrow was now
leukemic.
A Lifesaving Discovery
Bill and Penny were faced with choosing the best treatment for their daughter: a bone marrow transplant or an umbilical cord blood transplant. After researching their options they found Dr.
Kurtzberg, now the director of Duke University's cord blood transplant unit and lab. What Dr. Kurtzberg told Bill and Penny gave them hope and helped them decide that an umbilical cord blood transplant was the best treatment for their daughter. In September 1998, Caroline had a successful transplant. Her family counts her as a two-time survivor.
"It's hard to believe that in the early 1980s, the American Cancer Society funded this research; in 1993, the first cord blood transplant was done; and in 1998, it saved our daughter," Bill said. "Caroline is alive today because of Dr. Kurtzberg and because of the American Cancer Society."
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