Category: News

$200,000 to Fund Research at Tampa Moffitt Leads to $3M in New Funding from NCI

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Immunotherapy approaches are designed to stimulate the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer and can result in responses lasting for years. One strategy to improve immune responses against tumors is to isolate immune cells from the tumor, grow the cells to very large numbers in the laboratory, then transfer them back to the patient as adoptive cell therapy (ACT). At the Tampa Moffitt Cancer Center, patients with metastatic melanoma have been treated with ACT in clinical trials. At the time of the initiation of these trials, the expected survival time for stage IV metastatic melanoma patients was 6-9 months. Currently, patients treated on the ACT trial are tumor-free at 46, 52, 54, 57, 59 and 66 months. Funding from Swim Across America has led to the development of additional clinical trials in patients with metastatic melanoma that combines ACT with other immunotherapy approaches that is expected to boost results even further. The crucial funding from Swim Across America has allowed for the development of improved ACT strategies resulting in additional awards to Drs. Amod Sarnaik and Shari Pilon-Thomas totaling greater than $3 million. These awards include a National Cancer Institute K23 training grant, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant, and a sponsored Research Agreement with Lion Biotechnologies.

Picture 1 L-R: Dr. Amod Sarnaik, Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas
Picture 2 L-R: Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas, Dr. Amod Sarnaik

SAA Family Tree (August)

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SAA Family Tree is a monthly focus on stories that display the impact all the members of the Swim Across America family have both locally and nationally. If you have a story or link you’d like to share, please send here.

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  • Olympians Kristy Kowal and Heather Petri are mentioned in the same breath as Taylor Swift in this Boston Herald wrap-up.
  • SAA – Atlanta’s Event Director Megan Melgaard and Olympian Doug Gjertsen stopped by CBS46 to get everyone to Lake Lanier Islands on Sept. 17.
  • Brian Boyle writes #WhyISwim for the Huffington Post – look for Brian at SAA -Baltimore.
  • SAA – Atlanta’s Sheri Hart makes waves in Simply Buckhead magazine.
  • WGN came out to Ohio Street Beach to film SAA – Chicago.
  • Dr. Julie Granger of SAA – Atlanta fights cancer, fear to help other swimmers. (Atlanta INTown)
  • SAA – Seattle and its impact on cancer research in the community is profiled in 425 Magazine.
  • Mel Smith of SAA – Seattle isn’t planning on quitting swimming at 73.
  • FiOS1 covered SAA Greenwich – Stamford.

 

$50,000 Turns Into $1.7M

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On July 1 Dr. Animesh Barua at SAA beneficiary Chicago Rush was notified that he has been awarded $1.7M in RO1 funding (the highest level) from the National Institute of Health. Swim Across America funding from the 2013 SAA Chicago swim enabled Dr. Barua to refine and bolster his study, which is the basis to developing a non-invasive early detection test for ovarian cancer. Currently, there are no early detection tests available for ovarian cancer – a very aggressive and hard-to-treat disease. If successful, Dr. Barua’s test could help the nearly 25,000 women in the United States who are diagnosed each year. Early detection is key. Roughly 14,000 women die annually of ovarian cancer. An effective, accurate test could drastically reduce that number. Critical seed money from Swim Across America was instrumental in allowing Dr. Barua to conduct his study which lead to the new funding from NIH.

SAA Chicago-Animesh Barua-Robert DeCresce-Faye Jacobs-Josh Jacobs

(L to R: Dr. Animesh Barua; Dr. Robert DeCresce, Acting Chicago Rush Cancer Center Director; Faye Jacobs; Dr. Josh Jacobs, Associate Provost for Research Chicago Rush)

 

SAA Family Tree (June)

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SAA Family Tree is a monthly focus on stories that display the impact all the members of the Swim Across America family have both locally and nationally. If you have a story or link you’d like to share, please send here.

  • An incredible New York Times story on the Levy family featuring Wills Levy, a bone marrow transplant donor that helped save his brother Andrew’s life. Wills participated at the SAA – SMAC Out Cancer Pool Swim in May.
  • A great feature on the 10th anniversary of the Greenwich-Stamford swim featuring proud participants Craig Lawrence, Victoria Dinkel and the Bass family.
  • SAA beneficiary Memorial Sloan Kettering and its pediatrics department was the  focus of a popular ‘Humans of New York’ series that raised a lot of awareness and funds for MSK.
  • Emily Crabtree of SAA – Chicago and the swim were highlighted in the Rush University Medical Center annual report.
  • Greenwich-Stamford swimmer Julia Neri was featured locally for being named valedictorian among other notable achievements.
  • Swim Across America was the Event Spotlight feature in SwimSwam Magazine’s Olympics Preview Issue. Pick up a copy and see how great the 4-page spread turned out!13245263_10153490105146176_5270864362521739117_n

SAA on the Scene

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Members of the Swim Across America family are active in their communities. SAA on the Scene shares stories from the “dry side” of our events where the SAA mission to make waves to defeat cancer is honored and recognized. Feel free to send submissions for future posts here.

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) Discovery Celebration
Harvard Club (New York) – April 14 

Greenwich-Stamford co-chairs Michele Graham and Lorrie Lorenz, and SAA Director of Events Craig Beardsley were in attendance to learn how dollars granted to ACGT are defeating cancer.

Swim Across America AYA Lounge One-Year Anniversary Celebration
Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa) – April 26

SAA – Tampa Event Director Rob Shapiro and committee members Alicia Reyes-Shapiro, Tony Scicchitano, Janice Scicchitano and Olivia Fridgen participated in the one-year anniversary of the Adolescent and Young Adult Lounge opening. We profiled AYA in our lab series profile.

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SAA – Long Island Sound Swim Kickoff Event
Larchmont Yacht Club – April 27

The 24th annual Long Island Sound Open Water Swim Kickoff event took place on April 27th. Beneficiary representatives from Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Columbia University Medical Center and Cancer Support Team attended the event. Dr. Jedd Wolchok, MD PhD (of MSK) and Dr. Andrew Kung, MD PhD (of CUMC) spoke at the event sharing breakthroughs being made to defeat cancer in their labs.

2016 Larchmont Kickoff

Craig Beardsley (SAA Director of Events), Jean Fufidio, Dr. Jedd Wolchok, MD PhD, Dr. Sadna Budhu PhD, Tony Sibio (SAA – LIS chair and event director)

2016 Larchmont Kickoff3

Robyn Gartrell MD, Dr. Andrew Kung, MD PhD, Lucille Winton, Katie Shields, Dr. Jedd Wolchok, MD PhD, Dr. Sadna Budhu PhD, Dr. James Garvin MD PhD, Tony Sibio (SAA – Larchmont chair and event director)

Check Presentation for SAA – San Francisco

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(L-R) Mike Bruner (Olympian), Dr. Robert Goldsby (UCSF beneficiary), Susan Helmrich (SAA-SF Co-Event Director), Dr. Julie Saba (UCSF Oakland beneficiary), Heather Petri (Olympian and Honorary Chair SF-SAA) and Anthony DuComb (SAA-SF Co-Event Director).

On March 14, members of the Swim Across America – San Francisco family took part in a special check presentation at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

 

San Francisco Co-Event Directors Susan Helmrich and Anthony DuComb represented Swim Across America along with Olympians Mike Bruner and Heather Petri as they presented a $450,000 check to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Dr. Robert Goldsby  (UCSF) and Dr. Julie Saba (UCSF Oakland) both spoke at the event and thanked all the SAA swimmers, kayakers, volunteers, olympians and donors for their contributions to defeat pediatric cancer.

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Event Flyer
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(L-R) DuComb, Helmrich, Dr. Saba, Dr. Goldsby

Welcome!

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Welcome to the NEW Swim Across America blog!

From the very first dollar we raised to reaching the $50 million dollar mark this year, money raised local has always stayed local at Swim Across America. SAA swimmers know the impact they are making in the fight against cancer, and with that motto we’ve grown from a single beach swim to dozens across the US.

With that in mind, we’re insanely excited to launch this platform to keep you in the loop as we team up in the fight against cancer together. Our blog will bring to life the best of SAA, including olympian and swimmer interviews, #swimmerproblems, photo updates on events and things you never would have known about SAA otherwise. We welcome your feedback and hope you and the entire SAA family enjoy what we share. Comments are always welcome.

In our lifetime, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will get cancer. We’re in the business of changing that. Stay involved with us in the water, on land, or online by leaving us comments and feedback, and together, we can Make Waves to Fight Cancer!

Love,

Janel Jorgensen McArdle
SAA President & CEO

Janel