LLS funds $46 Million in new research to find cures for cancer

cures through its aggressive research investment; the organization announced it has committed an additional $46 million to fund the most innovative science at leading medical institutions around the world, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, City of Hope in Duarte, California, and the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia. LLS has invested more than $1 billion in cutting edge cancer research in its nearly 70-year history.

As advances in technology have enabled scientists to learn more about what drives cancer, and why some people respond to treatment while others don't, this research investment will help achieve cures faster. Already a leader in innovating with precision medicine, particularly with its groundbreaking Beat AML Master Trial, a multi-center, multi-drug clinical trial in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), LLS will now fund 23 new grants for this targeted approach to finding the right drug for the right patient at the right time. Further, to advance the revolutionary therapies that harness the body's own immune system to fight cancer, LLS will fund 17 new immunotherapy projects.

These new grants bring LLS's total active research portfolio to 254 grants, more investment in blood cancer research than any non-profit agency or government agency outside of the National Institutes of Health. 

According to Louis J. DeGennaro, Ph.D., LLS's president and CEO, "There is never a good time to get cancer, but it's a phenomenal time to be fighting it. LLS is doing more than any cancer non-profit to advance the next generation of blood cancer treatments and cures, and, in doing so, we are helping patients with other cancers and chronic diseases. Already in 2017, the FDA has approved 13 new blood cancer treatments or new indications, and LLS has supported virtually all of them. Our long-term vision and investment is paying off in our impact for patients."

As part of its ambitious research agenda, LLS continues to invest approximately $10 million annually in its venture philanthropy initiative, TAP, or Therapy Acceleration Program, through which the organization partners with biotechnology companies to accelerate development of novel therapies through clinical trials.