CURE: The Rare Cancer Initiative will bring new hope to cancer patients.
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's Rare Cancer Initiative is a comprehensive, innovative effort that will transform rare cancer research and save lives around the world.
The Jedi Rare Cancer Foundation has committed to raise $5 Million over 5 years for Case Comprehensive Cancer Centers’s CURE: The Rare Cancer Initiative, a comprehensive, innovative effort that will transform rare cancer research and save lives around the world.
A strategic priority
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has identified rare cancer research as a strategic priority because there is increasing recognition that a national strategy is required in the United States to overcome the obstacles that have traditionally resulted in a lack of funding for rare cancer research and progress for rare cancer patients.
A collaborative national effort
Led by Case CCC Director Dr. Gary Schwartz, CURE: The Rare Cancer Initiative presents an opportunity to not only narrow the gap in positive patient outcomes and address the life-threatening imbalance that hampers rare cancer research and treatment, but also shift paradigms across the entire field of cancer research. CURE is a collaborative effort that goes far beyond basic and translational science, aiming high in its vision to consolidate rare cancer research and translation in previously unimagined ways to achieve unprecedented results through a collaborative national effort that will involve Chase CCC directors, governmental leadership, leading rare cancer researchers, clinicians, representatives of patient advocacy groups and foundations.
Better together:
Vision meets opportunity
While each CURE collaborator is capable of impressive scientific achievement on its own, the Case CCC is built upon a belief that together everyone can achieve more. CURE will allow unprecedented understanding and targeting of rare cancers using groundbreaking scientific approaches developed by Dr. Schwartz and his collaborators to:
Innovative perspective, novel approach
CURE and Case CCC Director Dr. Schwartz’s groundbreaking science are built on the understanding that tumors are complex ecosystems composed of not only cancer cells, but also “healthy” cells that can be co-opted by cancer to fuel its growth, or immune cells that actively attempt to kill cancer cells. Within each of the cellular compartments of a tumor, there exists further heterogeneity, such that cancer cells differ among each other, and immune cells have varying functions and cell-to-cell interactions. Novel cutting-edge technologies, called single-cell genomics, enable deep molecular characterization of tens of thousands of cells, one cell at a time, thus providing the required resolution to dissect the complex tumor ecosystem. Linking single-cell genomics analyses with drug predictions and response data offers a unique opportunity for informing therapies in patients.
Philanthropic support: a critical resource
The Jed Ian Taxel Foundation for Rare Cancer Research is the key supporter of this effort and will serve as the primary foundation among several foundations the consortium hopes to engage. Additional philanthropic support is critical for transforming CURE from concept to reality and collecting vitally important early-stage research results that will position it for large-scale funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute and more, which will accelerate our progress toward our ultimate and shared goal of lifesaving cures.
