#callforboard #board #volunteer #cancer #health #volunteering #team #joinus #joinourboard #joinourteam #makeadifference #massachusetts #boston #cancereducation #cancerresearch #cancersupport #cancerawareness #thursday #thursdaythoughts #cancernonprofit #nonprofitboard #boardsofdirectors #directors #nonprofitdirectors

May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month!

We dedicated this week to education and awareness about brain cancer. 

Read our article about Glioblastoma (GBM):
canceredinstitute.org/fda-grants-breakthrough-therapy-designation-to-rindopepimut-rintega 

Stay tuned and follow us to get accurate and reliable simplified information about brain cancer!

#CERIinforms #CancerSimplified #Empowermentagainstcancer™ #CERICares

We had a visual phone call with our little patient, Kamal, in Azerbaijan. ???
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Our CEO, Founder, and Cancer Lead, @drayguensahin, made a visual phone call to talk with our little patient, Kamal. He was very shy at first, but then couldn't resist to Dr. Sahin and showed him all his toys, the doctors' tools he's playing with, took on gloves and "cured" his mother. ☺️?

Kamal was supposed to come to the U.S. to get his cancer treatment upon 'relapse', however, due to COVID-19, he's currently stuck in Azerbaijan where he gets his treatment on limited circumstances in collaboration with Turkey's doctors and us, @canceredinstitute. 

Kamal got his first set of chemotherapy treatment, and he's doing well as you can see in the pictures. ☺️?

Would you like to put a ♥️ in the comment box below, and send him all your sweet wishes? ?♥️ 

#CERICares #CERIPatients #BraveSouls #empowermentagainstcancer™

Learn more about our CERI Personalized Patient Program™: canceredinstitute.org/patient-program 

#cancer #cancerpatients #cancerandchildren #childhoodcancer #bravechildren #cancertreatment #COVID19 #Covid19nCancer #AML #AMLM7 #AMKL #acutemegakaryoblasticleukemia #childhoodcancerawareness #news #coronavirus #covid19news #cancernews #wednesdaywisdom #wednesday #wednesdays #wednesdaymood #wednesdayvibes #wednesdaythoughts

On World Kidney Day, and every day, it is important to make sure that we keep our kidneys healthy and well functioning. 
Our kidneys are one of the most sensitive organs of our body. The kidneys have the task of removing waste products and excess fluid from the body. It is also the kidneys' task to regulate the salt, potassium and acid content in the body. A normal, healthy kidney performs filtering and returning 200 liters of liquid blood every day.

Here are 7 ways you can keep your kidneys healthy. Do you do any of these? 

#CERICares #Empowermentagainstcancer #WorldKidneyDay

Also check our nutrition, healthy diet, and exercise page on our website for more healthy tips: 
canceredinstitute.org/nutrition-healthy-diet-exercise

We are thrilled to announce that we are now launching our CERI Cancer Research Laboratory! 
And the best of all - YOU will be a part of it! 
With our publicly funded cancer research laboratory, YOU will be directly a part of the success and achievement of our mission in cancer research, cure, and education. 

Join our *Kickstarter Fundraiser*, help us reach 'one part' of our financial goal by the end of August, help us build together our CERI Cancer Research Laboratory to conduct in-house CAR-T cell immunotherapy and educate the public straight from the laboratory!

Donate today whatever amount you can and please share so that everyone can be a part of our important, life-saving mission! 

Find more on the benefits you'll receiving when you donate on our website at canceredinstitute.org/donate.  

And please, feel free to start your own fundraiser on our behalf to support us! 

Thank you!
Your CERI Family

Combining venetoclax (Veneclexta) + ibrutinib (Imbruvica) may be an effective initial treatment for previously untreated patients with CLL (a.k.a Chronic Lymphoblastic Leukemia), ​results of a Phase II (Phase 2) study by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, published on May 29, 2019, suggest.

Both of these drugs are already FDA approved. The study was conducted with 80 previously untreated patients.

• Median age was 65 years with 30 percent over age 70.
• Of these patients, 92% had high-risk genetic anomalies.
• 88% of patients had complete remission with normal or incomplete blood count recovery after 12 cycles of treatment.
• 61% of patients had complete remission with undetectable minimal residual disease.
• 60% of patients developed low white blood cell counts, similar to what has been reported in other venetoclax combination trials.

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According to the researchers, the combination of these two drugs gave substantially better results than each of these two drugs alone. 

The researchers also added that more robust therapies for CLL patients are needed, due to the fact that:

1. majority of patients are older than 65, and
2. that the existing therapies are not always effective.

One of the lead researchers, Dr. Jain, said the following: “This group of patients often has unacceptable side effects and has a lower rate of complete remission and undetectable minimal residual disease. Our data showed that non-chemotherapy, combination therapy with ibrutinib and venetoclax demonstrated no new toxic effects compared to what has been previously reported for the individual agents.”

No new safety concerns were observed with the combination therapy.

The current median follow-up of the trial is 14.8 months. However, according to the researchers a longer follow-up is needed to adequately assess the long-term safety of this combination.

Study findings were published in New England Journal of Medicine on May 29, 2019.

Lead researchers of the study included:

• Nitin Jain, M.D., Associate Professor of Leukemia 
• William Wierda, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Leukemia
• Varsha Gandhi, Ph.D., Department Chair ad interim of Experimental Therapeutics

References: 

1. ​Study reports ibrutinib and venetoclax combo effective as front-line therapy for select chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. 
2. Ibrutinib and Venetoclax for First-Line Treatment of CLL, Nitin Jain, M.D., Michael Keating, M.D., Philip Thompson, M.D., et al., N Engl J Med 2019; 380:2095-2103.
   

#ChronicLymphocyticLeukemia #CLL #ChronicLymphoblasticLeukemia #clinicaltrials #mdanderson #mdandersoncancercenter #leukemia #cancertreatment #venetoclax #Veneclexta #ibrutinib #Imbruvica