The Paula Takacs Foundation 

for Sarcoma Research

                          

The Paula Takacs Foundation for Sarcoma Research, a 501(c)(3) entity, was formed to raise both awareness as well as funds for Sarcoma research. Because sarcomas only represent approximately 1% of adult and 15% of childhood cancers, they lack the government funding that other cancers often receive. To further complicate the situation, there are over 50 different types of sarcomas, all of which respond differently to treatment. So you take those statistics and factor in the resistance that many of these sarcoma types have to traditional cancer treatments, and you can see why private funding is so desperately needed.

One of the great challenges of this disease is to find a way to outsmart it. As traditional therapies generally may slow down disease, but fail to be curative, doctors and scientists are approaching treatment in new and unique ways that can make having a sarcoma a chronic rather than an acute disease. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), home to leading sarcoma researchers, is doing just that.

To help the doctors at MSKCC fight this terrible disease, The Paula Takacs Foundation held The Sarcoma Stomp, a 5K run, 3K walk in Charlotte, NC on April 2, 2011. The event was a huge success with well over 500 participants and to date, just over $100,000 raised. The beneficiary for the inaugural Sarcoma Stomp is The Kristen Ann Carr Sarcoma Laboratory at MSKCC. It is run by Dr. Sam Singer, one of the foremost sarcoma surgeons in the world, who has for the last five years used the most modern methods, including nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, to investigate new treatments for sarcoma. Your support can help Dr. Singer and his staff continue to forge new inroads into this disease, through clinical trials, giving new hope to its victims.

The 2012 Sarcoma Stomp

Charlotte’s 2nd annual Sarcoma Stomp was a huge success! More than 700 people came to McAlpine Park to enjoy the gorgeous weather and raise awareness and funds for sarcoma research. This year, the Stomp raised a staggering $112,000 to support the life-saving research underway at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The 2012 Sarcoma Stomp had a warm, upbeat vibe. The 5K and 3K courses wind through woodland trails and around a pond, so the walkers and runners get a chance to enjoy the park. There were assorted desserts, fruit and bagels at the finish line, thanks to generous donations by area merchants. The music, provided by KISS 95.1, created a celebratory atmosphere and encouraged people to stay in the park after the event, enjoying the sunshine and cheering along the packs of kids participating in the Kids’ Dash.

Organized by a volunteer committee brought together by the Paula Takacs Foundation for Sarcoma Research, the Sarcoma Stomp drew people from Texas, Ohio, New York, Michigan, South Carolina and Georgia, in addition to many local families.

The money raised will boost underfunded sarcoma research and is proof that a community, working together, can make an enormous difference.



Below is the link to the video the Paula Takacs Foundation submitted to the Mercedes-Benz USA Community Stars contest:

Paula Takacs Foundation Sarcoma Research

The Kristen Ann Carr Sarcoma Laboratory

           

The major focus of Dr. Singer's research effort is the development of a novel clinically relevant biochemical and molecular system of prognostic determinants for soft tissue sarcoma. His laboratory is the first to apply novel ex vivo magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy methods to examine the biochemical state of tissue lipid and important mediators of cellular lipid metabolism for the most common histologic types of sarcoma.

These studies are focused on using NMR to evaluate the content, composition, and diffusion characteristics of membrane lipid and glycolipid, and relate this biochemical analysis to sarcoma tissue cellularity, proliferation, extent of differentiation, apoptosis, and the propensity for the sarcoma to metastasize. A major goal of this work is to compare sarcoma lipid analysis with conventional histologic grading to see if quantitative biochemical profiles of tissue lipid improve prognostication compared with standard clinicopathologic predictors (grade, size, and histology).

In his NMR laboratory, Dr. Singer is developing new methods for predicting and monitoring response of sarcoma to therapies that are based on a quantitative biochemical analysis of sarcoma apoptosis and differentiation. This integrated computational approach to the analysis of complex molecular and biochemical markers grapples with one of the major issues in applying solid tumor biology to support clinical management decisions: How do we utilize / discriminate from the multivariable biological parameters available?

Many believe that future therapy will be "targeted" to specific abnormalities in the tumor. To utilize such targeted therapy, novel methods of examining tumor composition for specific targets are needed. While many approaches involve new gene discovery, there is considerable evidence that protein and lipid metabolite abnormalities can be targeted to enhance treatment response. The results from this proposal would ultimately enable the identification of new targets and would provide a more rational approach to selecting combination chemotherapy based on an understanding of protein and lipid metabolism along with solid tumor molecular genetics. (text taken from MSKCC home page)

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

The world's oldest and largest private cancer center, MSKCC has devoted more than a century to patient care as well as to innovative research, making significant contributions to new and better therapies for the treatment of cancer. Today, the Center is home to more than 10,000 employees including 727 Memorial Hospital attending staff and 133 SKI members. In 2008, more than 22,000 patients were admitted to Memorial Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering accommodated 466,000 outpatient visits at its Manhattan and regional sites combined. (text taken from MSKCC home page).


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The Paula Takacs Foundation for Sarcoma Research
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