Komen MBC Gala Nets $150K for Duke & UNC Research
By: Julie Poucher Harbin, Senior Writer, DCI
There are 42,000 lives lost each year to breast cancer in the U.S.
On October 10, Susan G. Komen Triangle to the Coast hosted its first "Together We Thrive: A Gala for Metastatic Breast Cancer" benefiting the Komen North Carolina to the Coast Metastatic Breast Cancer Collaborative Research Initiative, which brings together Duke Cancer Institute and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers to fast track research for patients living with metastatic breast cancer.
In a message to supporters, Komen NCTC development coordinator Amy Charney wrote that the more than $150,000 that was raised at the gala will be dispersed, in 2021, as research grants to investigators at Duke and UNC, "giving hope to those living with metastatic breast cancer."
Donald McDonnell, PhD, a Susan B. Komen scholar and winner of the Susan B. Komen's 2020 Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Basic Science Research, spoke at the gala about the Duke Cancer Institute/Susan G. Komen North Carolina Triangle to the Coast research partnership. McDonnell is the Glaxo‐Wellcome Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology, a professor of Medicine, a professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and co‐director of the Women’s Cancer program at Duke Cancer Institute.
(Video produced and shot by Shawn Rocco, Duke Health videographer)
The Susan G. Komen NC Triangle to the Coast Affiliate has invested more than $14 million in community breast health programs in its 29-county service area and has helped contribute over $5 million to the more than $1 billion invested globally through Komen’s National Research Program.