In 2007 the Dorgan-Diephuis family was touched by cancer when our son Bradford was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, while he was in college. Bradford underwent many rounds of chemotherapy and surgeries over the course of the next two years while battling this cancer. Thankfully, the treatments were successful; his cancer has been in remission for the last 7 years and his prognosis is good.
When Bradford was ill, our family formed the Team Strong Brad Foundation with the mission of supporting efforts searching for cures for this form of cancer. Rare diseases such as osteosarcoma tend not to attract pharmaceutical research and, as a result, the primary treatment options for osteosarcoma have not changed in over 40 years. However, it is possible for smaller, grassroots organizations like ours to have an outsized impact by supporting early-stage research. Once promising early results are shown, pharmaceutical corporations are more likely to invest the considerable resources necessary to bring a new drug to market.
We have decided to commit a majority of our funds towards a very promising project which will study a new class of drugs that inhibit the intracellular protein ATR, which appears to be required for growth and proliferation of osteosarcoma cancer cell lines. Led by Greg Cote, MD PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, the study will look at the efficacy of ATR inhibitors on preventing growth of osteosarcoma in cell lines and animal models. However, the total budget for the project is in excess of what we are currently able to provide. We are hoping our additional funds, along with fundraising by MGH, can help us reach the dollars required to get this important project started.
We welcome and appreciate your donations.