BlueskyMy husband, Josh Lombardi, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive sarcoma, DSRCT, in November 2023. He has been fighting this disease with grace and grit ever since.
Sarcomas are not as well understood as other cancers. We have a long way to go to improve outcomes for patients like Josh.
This May, I will be moving every single day to raise funds for life-saving research and care at BC Cancer. Our team will then ride in the Valley GranFondo on June 8, a 120 km cycling event.
Specifically, we are raising money for Dr Torsten Nielsen's sarcoma research lab.
Did you already donate last year?
Here is an update from Dr Nielsen himself:
"Inspired by the benefits we are seeing for Josh and for two other Canadian patients receiving a new immunostimulatory therapy being developed in Seattle, the Nielsen lab is investigating the involvement of gamma-delta T-cells in DSRCT and related sarcomas. This is part of a larger project assessing therapeutic biomarker expression in DSRCT, for which we have recently secured ethical approval to gather all the available samples in BC (including now also from BC Childrens). We are concurrently optimizing tests to detect targets for three newly developed antibody-drug conjugate therapies. In parallel we have struck up a new collaboration with investigators at the worlds leading centre for DSRCT research (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York) who are helping us design a much-needed genetically-engineered mouse model for this cancer that could be used for experimental therapeutics. To accelerate all this work, we have identified a bright, hardworking and motivated young researcher to join our team as our new technologist dedicated to the DSRCT project. Finally, with Josh, Sophie & Val's personal help as part of our newly formed Patient and Family Advisory Council, we are working to secure funding from the Terry Fox Research Institute that will include DSRCT in a program to investigate Childhood, Adolescent & Young Adult Sarcomas. If successful this Program Project would bring in an additional team of 11 colleagues to work on DSRCT and related cancers of the young, including internationally prominent cancer researchers like Sam Aparicio and David Huntsman who have not focussed on sarcomas before."
So, as I get ready to sweat my way through May, please show your support by donating today!
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