Drive Out Cancer
Melanoma Funding Updates
2019 University of Pennsylvania Update:
UNDERSTANDING WHO BENEFITS FROM MELANOMA IMMUNOTHERAPY
Golf for Rob has generously supported research by Drs. Tara Mitchell, Alex Huang, and John Wherry at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center to better understand who benefits from melanoma immunotherapy. Early support led to the understanding that an immune response could be predicted in a patient’s blood as early as three weeks after receiving anti-PD-1 therapy.
Continued support helped the team to design and implement a clinical trial giving patient PD-1 blockade before surgery. This most recent study found that 30% of patients had complete or near-complete shrinkage of their tumor after a single dose, and all of these patients remain disease-free. Tumor shrinkage was identified by imaging at three weeks—leading to the prediction that immune response happens even earlier. After testing this theory within a second cohort, the team found that the immune response peaks as early as one week after therapy—a finding that has resulted in a paper now published in Nature Medicine, one of the field’s most prominent scientific journals. The team is now proposing a clinical trial to test whether the combination of anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA4 results in clinical benefit for those patients who did not gain a response within three weeks.
Read more about the work Golf for Rob is supporting below:
2017 Golf for Rob Awards
After our 1st Annual "Drive out Cancer" outing we donated two awards to researchers in the field of Melanoma. The first award, the $15,000 Established Investigator Award, was presented to Dr. Harriet Kluger of Yale School of Medicine. The $10,000 Career Development Award was presented to Dr. Alexander Huang of the University of Pennsylvania.
Harriet Kluger, MD - Yale School of Medicine
After our 1st Annual "Drive out Cancer" outing we donated two awards to researchers in the field of Melanoma. The first award, the $15,000 Established Investigator Award, was presented to Dr. Harriet Kluger of Yale School of Medicine. The $10,000 Career Development Award was presented to Dr. Alexander Huang of the University of Pennsylvania.
Alexander Huang, MD - University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Huang's laboratory is studying on-target vs. off-target immune responses as determinate for immunotherapy resistance and toxicity.
About Melanoma
Did you know?
- Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
- Every hour 1 American dies from Melanoma. That's almost 10,000 people per year.
- Melanoma cases have tripled over the last 30 years.
- In 2019, over 192,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with Melanoma.
- Melanoma is not just
- Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
- Every hour 1 American dies from Melanoma. That's almost 10,000 people per year.
- Melanoma cases have tripled over the last 30 years.
- In 2019, over 192,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with Melanoma.
- Melanoma is not just skin cancer. It can develop anywhere on the body - eyes, scalp, nails, feet, mouth, etc
- Nearly 90% of melanomas are thought to be caused by exposure to UV light and sunlight
Rob Stoffel Memorial Fund
In 2018, we established the Rob Stoffel Memorial Fund at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center. All proceeds will be donated to the fund. We work closely with doctors at Penn to identify and fund projects that we believe will truly help get us one step closer to driving out cancer.
