Dear Friends,
On Saturday and Sunday August 6 and 7th, 2022, Team ASPS will ride for the 19th time the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) bike ride. This year our team includes six riders!
We are raising donations and riding to find a cure for Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma (ASPS). ASPS is a rare cancer that tends to occur in young individuals, specifically adolescents and young adults and it has no cure. ASPS is a cancer that starts in the body’s soft connective tissues such as fat, muscles, or nerves. It is slow-growing and spreads easily in the body.
The PMC is a bike-a-thon that crosses Massachusetts to raise money for cancer research and clinical trials at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. I am asking you to sponsor our 100-mile bike ride.
Your donation will help us to continue collaborative research on ASPS at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and initiate a new human clinical trial for ASPS. Our current research efforts at Dana Farber are conducted by Dr. Matthew Hemming, Dr. Ewa Sicinska and Dr. George Demetri. This year we are planning to perform a genetic CRISPR screen using ASPS cell lines to learn about the biology of ASPS and identify specific ASPS targets for therapy.
In 2005, following our second ride with Team ASPS, we were able to initiate the first human ASPS clinical trial. This was the GVAX cancer vaccine, which was developed by Dr. Glenn Dranoff.
For the last 19 years I’ve worked relentlessly to find a cure for ASPS. I founded “Cure Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma International” (http://www.cureasps.org/), where I serve as President and Cancer Research Director. My organization aims to bring together ASPS patients, families and friends from all over the world in a shared interest to find a cure. An interactive “Forum” in the website enables ASPS patients to share experiences and receive information and group support from the ASPS community. It is through this knowledge that patients all over the world can make better decisions regarding their ASPS treatments.
Our organization works closely with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as with other institutions. With the help of friends and family who rode with me in our PMC “Team ASPS”, in the past 16 years, we raised and transferred more than $500,000 exclusively for ASPS research programs. Thanks to those efforts, the first “Cancer Vaccine” Clinical Trial (GVAX) to treat ASPS was opened in January 2005. This clinical trial was followed by the ARQ197 clinical trial and now by the Phase 2 Cediranib clinical trial, the Phase 3 Anlotinib and the Phase 2 Axitinib and Pembrolizumab clinical trials.
There are two convenient ways to donate:
- Online donations through the PMC website: Please click on the following link: Yosef Landesman ride page on the PMC website: (http://www.pmc.org/profile/YL0002). Then, once you are on my personal page, click on the left side:” SUPPORT MY RIDE” or on the right side: “DONATE TO MY RIDE”.
- You can write a check payable to “PMC-Team ASPS YL0002”. If you wish to send a check please contact me by email: landesmany@yahoo.com and I will give instructions on where to send the check.
Your donation is a fully tax refundable. The PMC tax ID is 04-2746912
Thank you for your support.
Yossi
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Yosef Landesman, Ph.D.
President & Cancer Research Director
Cure Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma International (iCureASPS)
e-mail: landesmany@yahoo.com