Cancer Researcher Honored For Restoring Hope, Providing New Possibilities to Advanced Stage Colon Cancer Patients
Schaumburg, Ill. (PRWEB) April 23, 2014 -- Gateway for Cancer Research, a nonprofit organization that funds cancer clinical trials across the world, has announced Edward Lin, M.D., as the 2014 Cancer Researcher of the Year. Dr. Lin, a cancer researcher at the University of Washington, is leading an innovative Gateway-funded clinical trial to help advanced stage colon cancer patients live longer, healthier lives.
The Cancer Researcher of the Year award is an annual recognition that honors a Gateway-funded researcher who is positively impacting the lives of today’s cancer patients through the development of safer and more targeted cancer treatments. Those eligible for the award include researchers who have received funding from Gateway for Cancer Research, and demonstrate true clinical ingenuity and compassionate care for anyone battling cancer today.
It is Dr. Lin’s outside-the-box thinking and scientific merit that led the Awards Committee of Gateway’s Board of Scientific Counselors to nominate him as an award finalist. What’s more, Dr. Lin received overwhelming support from the community and Gateway donors when online voting for the Cancer Researcher of the Year was opened to the public this spring.
“Dr. Lin truly embodies the mission and heart of Gateway,” said Teresa Hall Bartels, President, Gateway for Cancer Research. “We are proud to call Dr. Lin a Gateway-funded researcher, and he is deserving of recognition for developing a promising new treatment that restores hope for colon cancer patients who may otherwise have few treatment options available.”
Dr. Lin was honored among cancer researchers and donors at the Gateway for Cancer Research Annual Meeting celebration in Schaumburg, Illinois, where he was presented with a commemorative award. In addition, Dr. Lin will receive $30,000 grant to further his award-winning work at the University of Washington.
“I am humbled for being selected as this year’s Cancer Researcher of the Year,” said Dr. Edward Lin. “With today’s knowledge, we should begin to ‘Demand Cures Today’ for this terrible disease with concerted global research initiatives."
Among Dr. Lin’s achievements are the innovation, progress and direct impact of his Gateway-funded clinical trial for people diagnosed with advanced stage colorectal cancer. Dr. Lin’s phase II clinical trial, which is funded by Gateway for Cancer Research, takes aim at chemo-resistant colorectal cancer stem cells using ADAPT therapy: Activating (CSCs) from Dormancy And Potentiate for subsequent Targeting, a phrase coined with his collaborator Linheng Li, Ph.D., from Stowers Institute for Medical Research.
Originally observed and developed by Dr. Lin in 2002, ADAPT therapy embodies maintenance combination therapy with an orally-administered chemotherapy agent with an anti-inflammatory drug traditionally used to address arthritis-related diagnoses. The powerful marriage of these two drugs has yielded significant results in both Dr. Lin’s retrospective and Gateway-funded prospective clinical trial that began in October 2013.
To date, approximately 150 patients have been treated with ADAPT therapy, and a total of 43 will be enrolled in the phase II study funded by Gateway. About 40 percent of Dr. Lin’s patients have achieved complete or near complete responses, which means there is little or no detectable presence of cancer. Even more encouraging is that ADAPT therapy has extended patients’ lives to a median survival of 92.7 months in this group of patients, all while avoiding the traditional and more toxic regimen of intravenous chemotherapy.
For more on Gateway for Cancer Research and Dr. Lin’s colon cancer clinical trial, or to make a donation to support Dr. Lin’s innovative research study, visit http://www.DemandCuresToday.org.
About Gateway for Cancer ResearchSM
Gateway for Cancer Research is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization committed to funding innovative cancer research studies that can help today’s cancer patients feel better, live longer or be cured. Thanks to generous underwriting by Cancer Treatment Centers of America®, 99 cents of every dollar Gateway receives helps to fund phase I and phase II cancer clinical trials at leading research institutions all over the world. Since 1991 Gateway has supported more than 120 clinical trials and funded millions in leading-edge research, including blending the best of conventional and complementary/alternative therapies. Get involved today by visiting DemandCuresToday.org, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/demandcures and join the conversation on Twitter @DemandCures.
Adam Zuckerman, Gateway for Cancer Research, http://www.DemandCuresToday.org, +1 847.342.6704, [email protected]
Share this article