has announced an innovative approach to research designed to bring together the best and brightest investigators from leading institutions around the world. This unique initiative, which will foster scientific collaboration and accelerate the discovery of new therapies, will be administered by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) under the direction of a Scientific Advisory Committee led by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.
Video of I'm to Young for This Foundation, founded by Matthew Zachary. He is a cancer survivor and advocate for those suffering from cancer under the age of 40.
Every day, cancer kills 1,500 Americans— one person every minute. This year, more than 550,000 Americans and six million people worldwide will succumb to this vicious disease. One out of three women and one in every two men will be diagnosed in their lifetimes. With advances in technology and research, scientists are close to pushing cancer from a disease that all too often takes lives to one people largely triumph over. This is where the end of cancer begins.
Stand Up To Cancer has announced an innovative approach to research designed to bring together the best and brightest investigators from leading institutions around the world. This unique initiative, which will foster scientific collaboration and accelerate the discovery of new therapies, will be administered by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) under the direction of a Scientific Advisory Committee led by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.
Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and was established by a group of media, entertainment and philanthropic leaders, whose lives have all been affected by cancer in significant ways.
Stand Up To Cancer's leadership team includes Laura Ziskin; Katie Couric; the Entertainment Industry Foundation, represented by Board of Directors Chairperson Sherry Lansing (who is also Founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation), CEO Lisa Paulsen, and Vice President Kathleen Lobb; the Noreen Fraser Foundation and its executives Noreen Fraser (who is also a cancer survivor) and Woody Fraser, and Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz also of the Robertson Schwartz Agency; and nonprofit executive Ellen Ziffren, whose husband, noted L.A. attorney Ken Ziffren, played a pivotal role in bringing together the three networks for the broadcast special.
About AACR The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the oldest and largest scientific organization in the world focusing on every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research. Its reputation for scientific breadth and excellence attracts the premier researchers in the field. By accelerating the growth and spread of new knowledge about cancer, the AACR is on the front lines in the quest for the prevention and cure of cancer.
About the Entertainment Industry Foundation The Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), the collective philanthropic organization for the television and film businesses, has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to support programs addressing critical health, education and social issues.
About the Noreen Fraser Foundation The Noreen Fraser Foundation utilizes film, television and web technologies to raise money for research as well as to educate and raise awareness about women’s cancers. The funds raised will be used to provide large grants to uniquely qualified cancer researchers.
Here we stand, on the verge of unlocking the answers that will finally conquer the devastation that is cancer.
We now understand the very biology that drives cancer. With knowledge gained from the mapping of the human genome, we can now target the genes and pathways that are involved in turning normal cells into cancerous ones. We are on the brink of possessing a toolbox full of new, advanced technologies just waiting to be adapted to benefit patients. Right before us, so close we can almost touch them, are scientific breakthroughs in the prevention, detection, treatment and even reversal of this disease.
For the first time we can envision the possibility of stopping cancer in its tracks. But just when science is on the verge of giving us the breakthroughs that can end cancer, the will and the funding to do so are disappearing from the national agenda and from our collective consciousness.
Cancer takes one person every minute. One life in a moment. They are our brothers, our sisters, our fathers and mothers, our husbands and wives, our best friends, our children, ourselves. Every day in America 1500 people die and yet the means to save them are literally within our reach. To wait any longer for someone else to save our lives and the lives of those we love is unforgivable.
Inspired to act by our own personal experiences with cancer, we recognize that we can no longer rely on the current system alone to give us the breakthroughs we need. So, we are calling on the public to help take matters into our own hands, investing in a revolution that will change the way scientist and clinicians work to understand and treat these diseases. Stand Up To Cancer is more than a rallying cry. It is a galvanizing force created to urgently move cancer research forward.
This is where the end of cancer begins: when we unite in one unstoppable movement and Stand Up To Cancer.
How?
Working with the top experts in cancer research, Stand Up To Cancer is forging a new way to develop breakthroughs that will end cancer. We’re putting together the best and the brightest minds in cancer research – those on the edge of accomplishment – investing in their projects and taking the bureaucratic obstacles out of their way. We are building interdisciplinary “Dream Teams” of scientists, clinicians, technicians and other experts, who will focus on a specific cancer problem. We’ll track their progress in real time, so that everyone who invests can see how their participation is creating real change.
Funds will be administered by the American Association for Cancer Research, the largest scientific organization in the world focusing on every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research. Together with their scientific Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee, comprised of world-class scientists across several disciplines and patient advocates, the most promising projects will be identified.
The group leading Stand Up To Cancer includes:
Katie Couric
The 1998 death of Katie Couric's husband, Jay Monahan, spurred her to become an advocate, and she co-founded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA) with the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) eight years ago. The televised broadcast of Katie's colonoscopy led to a 20 percent rise in these procedures, which researchers dubbed “The Couric Effect.” From 2003 through 2005, the colon cancer death rate fell almost 10 percent. Fundraising efforts led by Katie have generated more than $30 million to date. Scientists conducting cutting-edge research have made significant advances because of NCCRA grants, and some of these funds helped launch the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health in New York, a world-class, multidisciplinary cancer and wellness center. Katie is also working with the University of Virginia to establish the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center, named for her sister, who died of pancreatic cancer.
Sherry Lansing
Sherry Lansing is the founder and current chair of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on cancer research, health and education. Ms. Lansing was the chair of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures from 1992 to 2005. Currently, Lansing serves on the boards of Friends of Cancer Research, The Lasker Foundation, and Stop Cancer. Lansing is also a Regent of the University of California and a board member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966. Sherry lost her mother to Ovarian cancer.
Laura Ziskin
Laura Ziskin has been a motion picture and television producer and sometime executive for 25 years. Her film credits include What About Bob?; The Doctor; No Way Out; Pretty Woman; To Die For and the Spider-Man trilogy. As the founding President of Fox 2000, she shepherded such films as The Thin Red Line, Fight Club, Soul Food, and Courage Under Fire. She produced the 74th and 79th Academy Awards. Like one in three women in this country, Laura was diagnosed with cancer (Stage 3 Breast Cancer in 2004). As a cancer survivor she is determined to use all her resources to make cancer a first tier issue in this country.
Ellen Ziffren
The former VP of Corporate Communications for International Creative Management, Ellen also co-founded Rob Reiner's I Am Your Child Foundation in 1994 and helped build it from the ground up. In 2005 she began working as a marketing consultant for the Skoll Foundation, which invests in, connects, and celebrates social entrepreneurs around the world. This year, Ellen also became a partner in the Global Philanthropy Group, working with high net worth individuals, charitable foundations and corporations to design and implement highly-leveraged philanthropic strategies. Ellen's mother is a lymphoma survivor.
Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF)
Samuel Goldwyn and other Hollywood luminaries pooled the industry's charitable resources in 1942, and the organization that became the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) was born. Since then, EIF has raised $300 million for cancer research and prevention; diabetes awareness; and arts and music education programs. People from every facet of the entertainment community -- actors and executives; guild and union members; and employees of studios, networks and talent agencies -- volunteer their time, talent and services to support this work. EIF is a major force in the fight against cancer, raising critically needed dollars for research and treatment, fast-tracking the most promising science, and generating awareness. Film, television and recording stars appear in PSAs to drive home the importance of prevention and early detection.
Lisa Paulsen (EIF)
Lisa Paulsen is President and CEO of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). In the cancer arena, under Lisa's leadership, EIF has raised nearly $100 million for research, education, prevention and treatment. Lisa streamlined the grantmaking process to focus resources where they are needed most urgently, working closely with world-class researchers to support breakthroughs such as the breast cancer therapy Herceptin®. Funding came primarily from EIF's Revlon Run/Walk for Women. EIF also launched the Women's Cancer Research Fund (EIF's WCRF) with significant leadership from across the entertainment industry. Lisa recently lost both her parents to cancer. In their honor, Lisa led the creation, in their home town of Terre Haute, Indiana, of the Coleman Cancer Center, a TORI network site of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Kathleen Lobb (EIF)
Kathleen Lobb runs EIF's New York office, as well as the EIF's National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance staff team, which works with corporate supporters, government partners, and the colon cancer advocacy community on programs designed to encourage regular screening. EIF's NCCRA team liaises with and convenes the scientists the foundation supports at nine leading institutions, coordinates volunteer celebrity involvement in awareness campaigns, and plans and implements fundraising activities. Through this work, Lobb honors the memory of two close friends taken by cancer in the prime of their lives.
Noreen Fraser Foundation (NFF)
The Noreen Fraser Foundation was created in 2006 by Noreen and Woody Fraser and co-created by Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz to raise awareness and funding in order to find a cure for women's cancers. Our mission is to activate and motivate a massive movement through the mediums of Television and Film.
We believe that the translation model of scientific research is the key to finding a cure for cancer. We also believe in changing the funding model for research as it exists today. The Noreen Fraser Foundation will distribute larger sums of money to fewer scientists and researchers. By doing this, we will provide these brilliant minds the time, the tools, and the environment to eradicate this disease which has taken the lives of so many women.
Noreen Fraser (NFF)
Noreen Fraser founded the Noreen Fraser Foundation in 2006 with her husband Woody Fraser. She was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in 2001. She was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer in 2004 and created the Foundation in hopes of using her television producing skills to find a cure. As a producer, Noreen's television career includes producing: Paramount's syndicated program, Entertainment Tonight; ABC network's The Home Show; Family Channel's home and Family; and the Emmy Award winning Richard Simmons Show. Noreen volunteers her time to produce informational videos for non-profit charities. Her number one priority is The Noreen Fraser Foundation dedicated to finding a cure for women's cancers.
Woody Fraser (NFF)
Woody Fraser founded the Noreen Fraser Foundation in 2006 with his wife Noreen primarily to produce Television programming to find a cure for women's cancers. His distinguished career includes eight Emmy's and countless discoveries of talent. He is known throughout the industry and is respected as the all time leader in daytime television. Woody has created, developed and produced and packaged many of televisions most successful talk-variety and reality programs which include The Mike Douglas Show, Good Morning America, The Dick Cavett Show, The Steve Allen Show, America Alive, That's Incredible, Amazing Animals, The Richard Simmons Show, Life's Most Embarrassing Moments, The Home Show and Wild and Crazy Kids.
Rusty Robertson (NFF)
Named as one of the Top 100 Marketers by Advertising Age magazine, and as one of the most entrepreneurial women in the United States, Rusty Robertson is a founding partner in RSA and the founder of RPR & Associates, which was featured in Success magazine as one of America's Super 8 companies. Rusty is also a literary agent and award winning brand marketer, branding hundreds of major corporations and generating over $500 million for her clients and their companies. She helped create the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, was instrumental in the launch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation with Nancy Brinker, and co-founded the Noreen Fraser Foundation. Rusty lost her mother to lung cancer.
Sue Schwartz (NFF)
A founding partner in RSA, a hybrid marketing and branding company that combines the power of celebrity, strong public relations, the stealth marketing of the internet with the massive exposure created through traditional media, live home shopping, direct to consumer, and brick and mortar retail. Sue was named one of the most innovative people in America by Response Magazine. Prior to founding RSA, Sue held Sr. and Exec. VP positions at Revlon, Almay Cosmetics, and HSN, generating over $1 billion dollars in business for the company and her clients. Sue helped create the Noreen Fraser Foundation. She lost her mother to multiple myeloma, has a sister who is both a breast and ovarian cancer survivor and another sister who is a breast cancer survivor.
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes nearly 27,000 basic, translational, and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 70 other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs, and through publication of six major peer-reviewed journals. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors, patient advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists that provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.
