Stand Up To Cancer Looks to the Future

Stand Up To Cancer’s highly successful 2016 fundraising telecast will help keep up the pace of progress against cancer, according to Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C).

“Tremendous progress is being made in cancer research and treatment, in areas like immunotherapy and precision medicine, among others, and SU2C’s support of collaborative, translational research will help scientists make further strides,” Foti said. “SU2C’s forward-looking program is critically important because we still have enormous challenges ahead of us to markedly reduce cancer incidence and mortality.”

AACR President Nancy Davidson, MD; actor Bradley Cooper, who was the executive producer of the telecast; and AACR Chief Executive Officer Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc)

Since its inception in 2008, SU2C has received pledges of more than $480 million to help fight cancer, including $111 million in connection with the recent telecast. The organization has launched 19 Dream Teams of top researchers at many top-tier institutions and six translational research teams, and has funded 36 individual, early-career researchers who are undertaking high-risk, high-reward cancer research.

On the Sept. 9 telecast, SU2C Co-Founder Katie Couric announced plans for a new Dream Team focused on colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and Canada in men and women combined. SU2C is also announcing two new “cancer interception” Dream Teams focused on ways to detect and attack cancers of the lung and pancreas at very early stages. The AACR will work with SU2C to issue a “Call for Ideas” for each of these research grants to begin the process of selecting teams with the strongest prospects of making significant progress within the three- or four-year funding term.

“We are proud to work with SU2C as it continues its life-saving mission with these new research teams,” Foti said.

The AACR’s role as Scientific Partner of SU2C was on prominent display during the telecast. Ken Jeong, an actor who is also a medical doctor, hosted a portion of the show and described the AACR as SU2C’s “extraordinary partner.”

“The AACR works with scientific advisors to make sure funding goes to the right places, the right labs, the right scientists, and that there is rigorous oversight of research progress,” Jeong said on the air. “Their dedication makes all this happen.”

AACR also had an important role in the development of the telecast itself.

“We worked with the writers and producers to provide the viewing public with the most accurate and up-to-date scientific information,” Foti said. “The AACR is regarded as the authoritative resource in all subfields of cancer research, and we are honored to work with SU2C and the show producers to bring this information to the public in the most informative and useful way possible. Working with SU2C gives us the opportunity to impart a great deal of information while showing the personal and emotional side of cancer.”

The telecast was carried by the ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC networks in the United States, the major English-language networks in Canada, and a host of cable channels and online services. The entire broadcast is still available on the SU2C channel on YouTube.