We met with Dr. Richard O’Reilly, the
Chairman, and Dr. Paul Meyers, the Vice-Chairman of
Pediatrics at MSKCC to learn more about the best way for
us to make a difference. Within weeks following Max's treatment
we established The Max Cure Fund at Memorial Sloan
Kettering.
“Immune cell therapies are an exciting area
of research that holds great promise for
future progress in developing more precise,
less toxic treatments for children and
adolescents with cancer. With the support of
the Max Cure Foundation, the establishment
of a Cell Therapy Lab will be a crucial step
in advancing the discovery and translation
of new knowledge into novel gene and
cell-based therapies that are more effective
in fighting pediatric cancers.”
--Dr.
Richard O’Reilly Chair of the Department of Pediatrics,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
For the past decade Dr. O’Reilly has been
researching the use of alternative strategies to fight
cancer. The alternative strategy has proven to work in
other forms of cancer but he does not have the funds to
build a lab and test it for lymphoma as well as other
rare cancers. The goal is to raise $5.0 million dollars
for this project.
As of now, chemotherapy is the most
effective way to treat and destroy cancer cells.
However, chemotherapy is like a blunt instrument and
does a poor job distinguishing the healthy cells from
the cancer cells. While targeting the cancer cells, it
destroys the good cells too. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to
be able to “teach” our own cells to combat the bad cells
without sending chemo into the blood stream to do it for
us? Our bodies have trillions of cells, and all it takes
is for one bad cell to spread cancer. Dr. O’Reilly and
Dr. Meyers firmly believe that while chemotherapy would
still be used, it would be used on a smaller scale and
our children can be protected from the unknown side
effects of chemo down the road. No one knows for sure
the long-term negative effects of chemotherapy. But for
now, it is the best we have. Think of chemotherapy as a
sledgehammer; and this novel strategy that we will help
fund as a scalpel.
We have recently formed The Max Cure
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation to benefit pediatric cancer causes.
While The Max Cure Fund at Memorial Sloan Kettering will
be the primary beneficiary of The Max Cure Foundation,
we will be supporting other worthy causes focused on
pediatric cancer treatments and improving the lifestyle
of children afflicted by cancer.
