Even though 2021 was an extremely difficult year in so many ways, we are extremely proud of our CARE STAR Donors and participants. Once again, the Desert Mountain community showed their generosity by investing in our cancer research partners at HonorHealth Research Institute located here in the Valley and Mayo Clinic of Arizona.
Your generous support of CARE (Cancer Awareness through Research & Education), resulted in a total combined investment of $548,000, enabling us once again to embody our CARE Mission: “Inspiring the Desert Mountain Community to provide seed funding to fight cancer through local, world-class research.”
We held a golf tournament and a virtual evening fundraising event on March 8, 2021. Thank you to all the participants, donors, vendors, Desert Mountain staff, and volunteers that made this year’s fundraising efforts a great success despite COVID-19.
With $8.6 million dollars donated to date, we can all be proud of the fact that CARE has become an integral part of our Desert Mountain community. Our continued growth and success are a result of your generous and continued investment into cancer research.
How We Appropriate Funds:
Designated donations are carefully appropriated per donor direction to HonorHealth Research Institute or Mayo Clinic of Arizona, or split 50/50. In 2021, The balance of unrestricted donations were evenly divided between HonorHealth Research Institute and Mayo Clinic of AZ. Each year, the CARE Board determines the final funding projects and amounts based upon the recommendations of the CARE Funding Committee. The Funding Committee scrutinizes proposals from each institution and recommends to the CARE Board of Directors their selection, ensuring linkage to CARE’s Mission and Vision.
What Your Donation Funds:
2021 Update
The CARE Board of Directors have approved the following research projects:
HonorHealth Research Institute - AZ Rare Cancer initiative over a 2-year period designed to achieve three goals:
• Understand the individual biology of rare and refractory cancers.
• Develop tests to understand who is vulnerable to developing these cancers.
• Provide novel, effective precision medicine treatments, including new targeted drugs, immunotherapies, and cellular therapies.
Specific research will focus on a series of uncommon cancers for which HHRI has recognized expertise, including uveal melanoma and small cell carcinoma of the ovary, two cancers for which there are no FDA approved treatments.
Mayo Clinic of AZ - Multiple Myeloma adoptive T-Cell Therapy Clinical Trial.
· This is a first in-human study, representing the culmination of a long path from bench research to bedside that began in 1987. The Phase 1 clinical trial, will be conducted at the Nyberg Human Cellular Therapy Lab and will enroll 18 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
· The primary objectives are to determine the toxicity, feasibility and success rate of in-house manufacturing and administration of MUC1-specific T-cells in patients with multiple myeloma.
· The end goal will be creation of a clinical protocol and manufacturing components for submission as an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA.
None of this would be possible without CARE’s commitment to seed fund innovative, ground-breaking programs in cancer research.
To donate to CARE or learn more about CARE, please log into the members site at Desert Mountain (members.desertmountain.com), Go to DM Gives Back, Go to CARE
or contact us at CARE@caredm.org.
Who does not use Amazon?
Sign up for AmazonSmile and select Cancer Awareness Through Research and Education Associationas your preferred charity at smile.amazon.com/ch/20-3771288. Remember to shop for deals at smile.amazon.com, or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon app, and AmazonSmile will donate to CARE at no cost to you.
Together We Make a Difference!
Together We Win!
