Bringing Research to Life
For so many people facing cancer, now is a time for realistic hope. Individually, each person can make a difference and collectively, the many friends of the Abramson Cancer Center are shaping the future of cancer research and care.
Innovation is born of need, and one of humanity’s greatest needs is to eradicate cancer. We will get there because of philanthropy that fuels our research through every stage of development. Generous donors allow our teams to investigate treatments more efficiently and effectively than ever before thought possible.
In 2019, your giving propelled strides in our understanding of some of the most complex and devastating cancers.
The Healthnetwork Foundation established the Bladder Cancer Outcomes Research Fund to use patient data to impact treatment decision-making and improve outcomes. A national leader in genitourinary cancer research, the ACC will provide even more access to cutting-edge clinical trials and the latest treatment advances, thanks to this support.
The lab of Donald M. O’Rourke, MD, and his dedicated team of researchers in the Glioblastoma Translational Center of Excellence (GBM TCE) are exploring new avenues in precision oncology to develop the most effective targets for the treatment of Glioblastoma (GBM) and Grade 3 gliomas—and to more precisely analyze tumor biology. In 2019, a leadership gift from a family foundation accelerated their pioneering efforts in developing more personalized and targeted therapeutics. The implications of this work and the impact of this gift will go beyond GBM to ignite discoveries in immunotherapy and oncology as a whole.
Lynch syndrome is an inherited condition that increases risk of gastrointestinal and reproductive cancers. Because of the Jason and Julie Borrelli Lynch Syndrome Research Fund, research of this rare genetic disorder will be guided by the collaborative leadership of Bryson W. Katona, MD, PhD, Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Genetics Program and E. John Wherry, PhD, Director of Penn’s Institute for Immunology.
We continue to be inspired by A Love for Life, an organization committed to helping those impacted by pancreatic cancer through the Kevin Edmonds and "A Love for Life" Fund at Penn Presbyterian Oncology. In close partnership with the ACC, A Love for Life hosts numerous fundraising events culminating with a dragon boat race every fall that supports patients and their families as well as the work of Penn’s Pancreatic Cancer Research Center.
Philanthropy sets research in motion, allowing us to explore every lead and translate dynamic ideas into new and promising cancer therapies.
Penn Medicine is home to the first FDA-approved gene therapy for cancer, and because of our donors, the ACC represents the largest group in the world dedicated to cancer immunotherapy.
With the ImmunoRevolution fully underway at Penn, our patients have more hope and options, as well as the opportunity to be a part of a large effort to transform cancer care for the benefit of humanity.
Thank you to ImmunoRevolution heroes: Mr. James H. Greene, Jr. · Mr. Jeffrey L. Weiss and Mrs. Jill Weiss · Mr. James S. Riepe · Mr. George A. Weiss · Mr. Richard W. Vague · the Michael J. Neustadter Pancreatic Cancer Fund · the Kathleen M. Rotz Lung Cancer Research Fund at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center · Mr. Brian Samelson and Mrs. Heather Samelson · the Spilker Family Fund · the Berman family · Mr. Jonathan Rothberg
Providing Advanced Care
Throughout the Penn Cancer Network, advanced care means compassionate care and advocating for patients’ well-being is the most powerful medicine we can prescribe.
At the ACC, we focus on people, not their disease. Our goal is deliver the most innovative and targeted cancer treatments while providing the most complete experience of healing for our patients and their families through access to compassionate care throughout the Penn Cancer Network.
Philanthropy is vital in helping us to meet the evolving physical, emotional, and financial needs of our patients. Donors help us to raise the bar for excellence in compassionate, patient-centered care.
We are grateful to Sarah L. Jacobson and Michael Jacobson for their continued leadership giving to the ACC Patient Services and Special Needs Fund.
Support from the Berton and Sallie Korman Community Clinical Research Initiative will directly impact our patients’ ease of access to crucial cancer research programs within their own communities, allowing them to ultimately seek the best care closest to home.
This past April, our community lost a thoughtful and compassionate partner with the passing of Suzanne Roberts. Never missing an opportunity to connect with patients and families, Suzanne left an indelible mark on the hearts of everyone she met at the Roberts Center for Proton Therapy. Driven by the philanthropic vision of the Roberts’ family, the Center is every day saving lives and transforming the field. It is with Suzanne’s creative and passionate spirit that we continue our work – her legacy is one of life and hope for cancer patients, here in the Philadelphia area, across the nation, and around the world.
The Joan Karnell Supportive Care Program is addressing patients’ needs outside of the purely medical by offering art therapy, social work services, nutritional counseling, spiritual support, palliative care, and many other resources to our patients free of charge. With a generous and anonymous gift, the Karnell Program will continue to raise the bar for our mission of compassionate, patient-centered care, ensuring all our patients have access to holistic care as a core aspect of their experience at Pennsylvania Hospital.
At Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, The Umosella Family Patient Support Fund is providing financial support to uninsured or underinsured patients to help break down barriers to treatment - from transportation and childcare to housing and utility costs, these thoughtful donors are helping patients focus on healing rather than financial distress.
Supporting Thought Leaders
Endowed professorships are crucial for recruiting and retaining the best minds, the most creative researchers and the most engaged teachers. Donors who support their endeavors are creating opportunities for distinguished faculty to push the frontiers of their scholarship, accelerating discoveries at ACC that will benefit patients worldwide.
We are moved by ACC donors who have made indelible investments in our faculty in 2019.
Mariann T. MacDonald and Robert J. MacDonald endowed the Kevin Reitnauer Fox, MD Professorship in Oncology. Dr. Fox, the Mariann T. and Robert J. MacDonald Professor in Breast Cancer Care Excellence, is a leading researcher, a dedicated educator, as well as a caring, compassionate clinician, with a record of outstanding academic and clinical performance. The first Medical Director of the Rena Rowan Breast Center, Dr. Fox’s 30 plus year career has made an immeasurable impact on generations of breast cancer patients and their families. This new professorship honors Dr. Fox’s groundbreaking work in oncology and will be a lasting part of his legacy at the ACC.
Through a transformational gift, Joan F. Thalheimer established the Thalheimer Center for Cardio-Oncology to deepen our understanding of cardiac issues and the cardiac effects in long term cancer survivors. Joan's gift enables a multi-pronged approach to tackling these challenges including term and endowed funds for research, education and engagement programs through symposiums and lectures, endowed fellowship support, and patient care initiatives, all within the Thalheimer Center for Cardio-Oncology. A critical component of this visionary leadership gift included the establishment of the Founders Professorship in Cardio-Oncology honoring Joseph R. Carver, MD's innumerable contributions to the ACC and the field of cardio-oncology. Dr. Carver is the Bernard Fishman Clinical Professor of Medicine, the ACC Chief of Staff, and a world renowned expert in cardio-oncology.
We are grateful to all the leadership donors supporting the Cardio-Oncology Program and Dr. Carver’s leadership - Thank you to Mrs. Ellen Goldberg and the late Mr. Raymond Goldberg, Mrs. Loretta Schatz and Mr. Ken Schatz, Mrs. Donna Feinberg and Mr. Barry H. Feinberg, Mr. Kenneth Donner, and Mrs. Lynne Barack and Mr. Leonard Barack.
Longtime leadership donor Carol Imbt Cooper chose to support the ACC in her estate plans, directing her incredible generosity towards melanoma research within the newly established Tara Miller Melanoma Center. Under the leadership of the Center’s director, Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, C. Willard Robinson Professor of Hematology-Oncology and Division Chief, Hematology-Oncology, Ms. Cooper’s philanthropy will propel the Center’s ability to translate innovative scientific discoveries into clinical therapies that will benefit patients for years to come.
Launching the Next Generation
In advancing next-generation thinking, philanthropy is enabling the ACC’s visionary clinician-scientists to forward breakthroughs and is keeping the ACC at the leading edge of the field.
The Richard “Buz” Cooper Scholars Program honors the legacy of the second director of Penn Medicine's Cancer Center, Dr. Cooper, who was a dedicated mentor and advocate for innovative cancer research. The Cooper Scholars Program provides funding annually to faculty at the ACC to advance promising and novel inquiries throughout the field.
The Program is supported by the annual Breakthrough Bike Challenge (BBC), founded in 2014 by a group of friends whose lives had been touched by cancer. With the latest race hosted in September 2019, the BBC has raised $1.4 million since the ride’s establishment in support of cancer research!
The Stephen C. C. Cheung Fellowship in Surgical Oncology Sponsored by Catherine K. C. Leung will provide critical financial support to early-career clinicians in the oncologic-surgical sciences within the Division of Thoracic Surgery. The fund will ensure that trainees will keep apace of advancements in this ever-changing field through instruction within Penn’s Center for Precision Surgery where a team of surgeons, oncologists, scientists and specialized nurses work each day to provide patients with the latest and most advanced techniques in cancer surgery including intraoperative molecular imaging, or glowing tumor technology.
The Morton M. Kligerman, MD Training & Education Fund honors the legacy of an esteemed leader in radiation oncology by providing vital educational resources, including an annual lecture series through which trainees and faculty connect with scholars from across the globe. We are grateful to Thomas and Kristin Kligerman and Thomas and Hilary Schroeder for their on-going commitment to this fund.
A generous gift from an anonymous donor created the Aldevron Young Researcher Exploratory Fund to provide financial support to undergraduate students engaged in research at the ACC. The projects and activities supported by the fund are overseen by Bruce Levine, PhD, Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy.
Fueling Innovation & Discovery
Innovation and Discovery funds allow the ACC to do what we do best: leap into action when a promising idea emerges. Through their support of Innovation and Discovery, generous donors afford the ACC the flexibility to explore novel research ideas—bringing new treatments from bench to bedside as quickly as possible.
We are taking unprecedented steps to care for our patients, we have spared no expense and are invested in exploring every lead. Our goals are clear and unrestricted support is more critical than ever.
Innovation and Discovery funding provides a substantial pool of flexible resources available to utilize when and where they are needed most: from piloting a new idea to fueling Penn’s ImmunoRevolution. Work generated through the fund has been essential to recruitment and has resulted in clinical trials and publications vital not only in advancing knowledge but also in securing additional grants and funding that are allowing for the exponential growth necessary to attack this disease from all possible fronts. In 2019, unrestricted gifts strengthened the mission of the Abramson Cancer Center specifically in the areas of clinical trials and translational research.
We are grateful to Mr. Allen Floyd Wise, the H & H Kravitz Charitable Trust, Mr. Richard W. Vague, the Estate of Annebell E. Altrow, Mr. Robert W. Levis and Mrs. Susan K. Levis, and the Air Products & Chemicals Community, and Dorman Products, Inc. for their leadership giving in support of Innovation and Discovery.
2019 saw remarkable investments in research at the ACC’s Basser Center for BRCA. Under the leadership of Executive Director Susan M. Domchek, MD, the physician-scientists at the Basser Center seamlessly integrate the best science with the newest therapies, such as PARP inhibitors , revolutionizing the way clinicians in the ACC and worldwide approach research and care for those affected by BRCA-related cancers.
Michele Konner and Kevah Konner, W’83, have for many years committed their time, resources, and talent in support of the Basser Center. In 2019, they continued their support through a visionary investment to forward basic science at the Basser Center. The Konner BRCA Research Fund is currently supporting Junwei Shi, PhD, in his lab’s work with CRISPR gene-editing technology, a simple yet powerful tool that allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function. Dr. Shi’s work with this gene-editing process has a wide variety of potential applications including screenings for and the treatment of a variety of cancers.
With Eternal Gratitude
April 2020 saw the passing of our beloved founding donor, Madlyn Abramson. Madlyn’s bold vision and philanthropic spirit touched the lives of countless individuals by transforming how Penn conducts cancer research and provides comprehensive, compassionate care to those affected by this devastating disease. It was in her spirit that this mission became a reality. The reputation we enjoy today as one of the nation’s preeminent cancer centers has been built on the strong foundation that was laid by Madlyn.
Our pursuit of curing cancer unites us every day to do more for both our patients here at the Abramson Cancer Center and across the world. We have Madlyn, together with her husband Leonard, to thank for the vision that set us on this path. In 2019, the Abramson’s were unwavering in their support of Penn Medicine and they were among the first to respond to our region’s needs in the wake of COVID-19. Madlyn’s impact on cancer is profound, the community she has galvanized strong, and her legacy at Penn will last for many generations to come.
Philly Fights Cancer: Another Knockout
Philadelphia’s Navy Yard was the place to be on October 26, 2019 as Philly Fights Cancer Round 5 took to the ring. Some 2,000 guests turned out to celebrate, show support, and raise more than $13 million for the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC).
The Penn Medicine Breast Cancer Clinical Investigative Team received a special tribute for its tireless work in providing every cancer patient with crucial education, compassionate care, and support. Also honored were Margaret Anne and Jim Nolen, who have generously funded cancer research efforts, including studying the potential of CAR T immunotherapy for breast cancer, and are leading the way in support of innovative ACC research. The sold-out crowd enjoyed top-tier entertainment, including Hugh Jackman, John Mulaney, Andy Grammer, and Jessie Kyle along with Lauren Hart.
In 2015, the visionary Abramson Family launched Philly Fights Cancer, which has raised more than $39 million for the 400+ ACC scientists who work to advance new clinical trials for all cancers.
Photo below: ACC leadership sparkled in celebration of this year’s many achievements.
Basser Jean Bash Celebrates Gene-ius
On November 18, 2019 the Basser Center for BRCA held its 3rd biennial Jean Bash at New York's Cipriani Wall Street with a sold-out crowd of over 1,000. The evening, which raised $9 million, celebrated the 25th anniversary of the cloning of the BRCA gene and progress in research made since—propelled by the Basser Center.
Honoree Nina Garcia, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine and judge on Project Runway, helped to launch Basser's new LATINX & BRCA initiative with a compelling video in which she shared her personal story and questioned, “what if this could be the last generation affected by BRCA mutations?” After a stirring rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” performed by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Jon Mehlman accepted an award in memory of his beloved wife Marla Mehlman, imploring the rapt crowd, “you really don't want spouses posthumously accepting awards on behalf of their loved ones.” Guests viewed a gripping, animated video narrated by actress and ovarian cancer survivor Cobie Smulders. The night concluded with a performance by British singer Jess Glynne.
The Basser Center was established by Mindy and Jon Gray in 2012 in memory of Mindy's sister Faith Basser. To date, the Center has raised $100 million to support its life-saving mission to eliminate BRCA-related cancers and increase critical awareness and hope for individuals and families affected by a BRCA mutation.
THANK YOU
To join our powerful philanthropic community, please contact:
- ONLINE: PennMedicine.org/Abramson/Donate
- EMAIL: Abramson-gifts@upenn.edu
- PHONE: 215.898.0578
- MAIL: Abramson Cancer Center Development, 3535 Market Street, Suite 750 | Philadelphia, PA 19104. Make gifts payable to the “Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.”
- GIVINGPAGES.UPENN.EDU: Create a personalized page to encourage friends and family to donate in honor of your loved one, an event, or a special occasion.