Article written by Stephen Stefani, Oncologist at the Mother of God Cancer Hospital, Porto Alegre - RS, published on 10/10/2016 by the online newspaper ZH Opinion. October already has its color. Pink has occupied spaces and reminded of the importance of breast cancer. The growing statistics corroborate the clear perception that almost all of us are touched by cancer, in family, friends, or with ourselves. And it is estimated that, this year, nearly 60,000 women will receive the news that they have cancer. Possibly they will undergo surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, or some combination of treatment. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the incidence can be reduced by 30 {46cf1a6c7461ff493d31bdca70d45967bd1ce7048f85e123712b94daa5b61391} avoiding risk factors such as obesity, excessive alcohol use and smoking. Engagement in awareness campaigns has grown, but it is still much richer in social networks and other media than in practical measures. Many women over 40 have not yet had their mammogram, because they make the mistake of thinking that having no symptoms or family history provides sufficient protection. Access to treatments in the public system is lengthy and incomplete. The prices of new drugs are almost unfeasible for the available budget. The reality may not be so rosy, therefore. But we're moving forward. Toxic treatments are being much better tolerated and diseases that were previously incurable are being cured. Scientific research is closer to everyone and talking about the disease is no longer so scary, but we need practical measures. Fundraising initiatives for research such as the Cura Project (www.projectocura.org), which allows tax-deductible donations, offer hope of seeing a less devastating future. People are surviving and fighting so that their neighbors also have access to these advances, in a current that shows that human beings are much better than we often think.
After about four years of fighting a non-Hodgkin lymphoma that didn't respond definitively to any of the treatments that existed until then, at the end of 1997 I was informed that medicine had nothing left to do for me. In other words, the end of the earthly road had come.
A few weeks later, while trying to find some shortcut to continue on the road, I learned that the FDA (the North American agency that controls food and drugs) had approved the experimental human use of a new medication designed for exactly that type of lymphoma. As a biologist passionate about life and as a patient who didn't want to die, I decided to “run after” that last possibility. Almost two decades after being cured, I continue to thank God, the doctors, the researchers, the laboratory test subjects, the lawyers, and also the people and companies that financed the research that resulted in that medication.
I have watched with concern the frightening advance of cancer worldwide, especially in developing countries. In these countries, the challenges are even greater due to the regional specificity of some types of cancer, the scarcity of resources for prevention and early diagnosis, and the lack of a culture of financial support for clinical research, despite the tax benefits provided for all donors - individuals and legal entities.
The Cura Project is an encouragement in this scenario, as it aims precisely to raise resources to support research into new drugs to combat cancer in Brazil. Here we have strict rules for the approval of research by local ethics committees, which are part of a national regulatory network that protects the safety and well-being of each research participant.
The benefits derived from clinical research do not only reach patients who are cured and resume their normal course of life. They also add value to the institutions and professionals involved in their various stages, opening new frontiers of scientific knowledge that will underpin new scientific advances.
Life is priceless. Please help the Cure Project heal lives!
Cristina Santedicola
Biologist, Master in Geology
Salvador Sep 13, 2016
Check out the Cura Project Institute donation page and find out how to help! It's just click here!
On September 24, 2016, the Mother of God Cancer Hospital and the Porto Alegrense Equestrian Society promote 1st Dinner for Cancer Research - Cancer is no match when we work together!
The Dinner seeks to raise funds for the CURA project, which is an initiative of the LACOG (Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group) that proposes the development of actions to raise funds for cancer research in Latin America. The Cura Project makes events a means to raise awareness, educate, and raise funds for cancer research, considered fundamental to the discovery of new treatments for the disease. Dinner has a different proposal where guests will follow an equestrian event in a sophisticated and elegant environment.
Objectives of the event:
Some important information about the event:
Date: September 24, 2016 — Saturday — 7:45 p.m.Local: Sociedade Hípica Porto Alegrense, Av. Juca Batista, 4931 — South Zone - Porto Alegre-RS; valet parking (free of charge)Suit: Full tourTarget audience: 150 people from Sociedade Porto Alegrense
Event schedule: 19:45pm — Cocktail reception for guests 8:30pm — Start of the equestrian event — Jump mode 21:15pm — Official opening 9:45pm — Dinner and auction
You or your company can have the unique satisfaction of attending a dinner for good as part of those who believe that the fight against cancer depends on unity, research, and mobilization.
For more information, contact: Vanessa Patzlaff BrandolfVanessa.brandolf@maededeus.com.brFone: 55 51 9282 4239
The Cure Project was presented at the 11th edition of the Breast Cancer Congress, at the Inertia and Denial Conference: the participation of Brazilian/Latin American society in the fight against cancer.
The conference was held in the city of Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, and was presented by the Fundraising Coordinator of the Cura Project, Fernanda Schwyter.
Presentation of the Cura Project at the Breast Cancer Congress in Gramado.
From left to right: Laura Voelcker — LACOG Project Manager; Raira Maschmann — LACOG Data Manager and Monitor; Dr Carlos Barrios — LACOG Executive Director; Fernanda Schwyter -LACOG Fundraising Coordinator; Dr. Ana Gelatti — Oncologist and researcher at the CPO; and Virgínia Webber — Clinical Research Manager at the CPO.
Oncology Workshop for Journalists at the Breast Cancer Congress, Gramado 2016.
The Cura Project was launched in Salvador at the BEST Of ASCO 2016 Annual Meeting, organized by LACOG. At the time, a presentation of the project was given by its recruitment coordinator, Fernanda Schwyter. The launch was accompanied by doctors Dr. Carlos Barrios (RS), Dr. Fernando Maluf (SP), Dr. Sergio Jobim de Azevedo (RS), Dr. Aknar, Freire de Carvalho Calabrich (BA), Dr. Carlos Sampaio (BA), Dr. Caio Rocha Lima (USA) and Dr. Mohammed Jahanzeb (USA).
In this process, the patterns and characteristics of the diseases are observed and new diagnostic procedures and treatments are tested. It is where the doctor observes not only the disease, the cell, the tumor, but especially the PATIENT, the HUMAN BEING.
Because it is the only way to discover new drugs to combat the various types of cancer that decimate lives and burden society socially and financially in general. Initially, there is laboratory research, where the scientist is in a laboratory developing and testing drugs, remedies to cure diseases. This initial process usually takes more than 10 years before being tested on humans. And there is clinical research, which is testing the medicine on human beings. It is through research that doctors find new and better ways to help the population prevent, diagnose, control, and treat diseases. An example of this is the great evolution of cancer treatment seen in the last 50 years and which benefits us all. The disease, which was considered a sentence of death and suffering, now presents new perspectives: we are curing more and more patients and, above all, improving their quality of life.
However, we still need to do a lot, generate more knowledge and develop more effective drugs to face the enormous challenge of cancer, especially those types regionalized in developing countries, which are not covered by global research).
Why should Brazil (LATIN AMERICA), a country (ONE REGION) with so many basic health problems, with problems of lack of sanitation and education, invest in cancer research? Isn't this for countries that have already overcome these difficulties?
Because it will be the leading cause of death for years to come. Carrying a great social and economic impact. It is unquestionable that Latin American countries need to solve important social and public health problems, such as access to basic health, sanitation, and education. However, investments cannot be focused only on these areas, as this way we would be taking away from our cancer patients the possibility of having access to the latest scientific advances that benefit patients around the world. The probability of dying after a cancer diagnosis is twice as likely in Latin America as in the United States or Europe. This reality can only be changed by facilitating access to the new treatments that are now available thanks to research. Thus, the resources allocated for research development are converted into direct benefits for the population, opening opportunities for access to state-of-the-art treatments that are not funded by public health systems (and, often, because they deal with new drugs, are not available even in private systems). Research and the production of local knowledge are the main weapons to change the condition of our continent, where most patients receive lower treatments than those received elsewhere.
The new knowledge produced by research changes our way of living and our culture. A clear example of this is the discovery of the association between smoking and lung cancer identified in 1965 by Professor Austin Bradford Hill. Over the years, our society incorporated this technical knowledge into its common sense, changing our way of thinking and our behavior.
Nowadays, cigarette advertisements are regulated and smoking is no longer allowed in public places. There are many benefits that this behavior change brought to our society: a reduction in the incidence of heart attacks, cerebrovascular accidents (strokes), and sick children due to exposure to passive smoking.
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