The 1st Annual Drive for a Cure golf tournament will be held on Monday, June 30, at the beautiful Yorba Linda Country Club in Yorba Linda, CA. All proceeds will support the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Research’s goals of supporting patients and their families experiencing difficulties financing integrative approaches, as well as funding studies and clinical research into innovative cancer treatment and prevention methods.

The day will kick off with registration at 9:30am and complimentary range balls will be provided so a golfer can perfect that winning swing prior to the 11:00 start time. Individual golfer fee is $200; foursomes are $700. The event will include a 4-person scramble, a BBQ lunch, and a dinner banquet that evening replete with an exciting raffle, an auction and an awards ceremony. At the end of the dinner, a drawing will be held for a 2008 Ford Edge - tickets may be purchased from anyone at the Foundation for $100 and a maximum of only 500 tickets will be sold.

“We are grateful for the support of our sponsors, players, volunteers and other foundations who are helping to make this tournament a success,” says Dr. Albert C. Sanchez, Sr., FACR Founder. “Proceeds from events such as this provide important funding for our emergent research in cancer, and support of patients and their families around the world.”

“Through the generosity of individual donors and corporate sponsors, each year we raise significantly more money to support our goals. We are looking forward to keeping that tradition alive in 2008 and beyond.”

The Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Research was founded in 2003 by Dr. Sanchez after losing both his wife and daughter to colon cancer, in his search for more effective and less toxic cancer treatments. The mission of the FACR is to seek out promising, scientifically-validated alternative cancer treatment methods, to actively educate the public about them and to provide funding toward research and development of new treatments.

To date, thousands of patients and their families have been directly supported in their fight to heal, and countless others have and will continue to benefit from the ongoing research. The Foundation is dedicated to the belief that through integration of thoughts, ideas and approaches can we lessen the devastation cancer has had on our world, winning the battle one person at a time.

“The Foundation is excited at the aspect of bringing the community together in a fun-filled, exciting atmosphere of good-hearted competition,” states Al Sanchez, Jr., FACR Executive Director. “We look forward to raising much-needed funds as we strive to give people hope and answers in their fight against this disease.”

To obtain more information about the 1st Annual Drive for a Cure tournament, please contact Tina Gomez, Events Director, at 714-713-2836. Or visit the FACR website at www.facr.org.

Study Yields New Clues on Long-Term Cognitive Problems After Chemotherapy

By Kelli Miller Stacy
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
WebMD Medical News

Scientists have discovered that a popular chemotherapy drug affects healthy brain cells long after treatment ends. It’s a finding that provides further validation to the millions of Americans who develop long-term cognitive problems after receiving the cancer-killing medication.

Many cancer survivors report short-term memory loss and difficulty concentrating during and shortly after treatment, but for some the problems linger.

Until recently, doctors told cancer patients who developed memory loss, seizures, vision problems, and dementia that their ailments — collectively dubbed “chemo brain” — resulted from treatment-related fatigue, depression, and anxiety.

While more and more scientists agree that chemotherapy drugs may negatively affect brain function in certain cancer patients, how this occurs is largely unknown. Now, researchers at the University of Rochester and Harvard Medical School have provided what could be the first evidence of a biological cause of the lingering effects of chemo brain.

Reporting in a recent issue of Journal of Biology, researcher Mark Noble, PhD, director of the University of Rochester Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute, links the drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to extensive damage among specific groups of cells in the central nervous system; 5-FU is a widely used chemotherapy drug that has been a part of America’s cancer-killing arsenal for more than 40 years. It is prescribed for those with a variety of cancers, including breast, stomach, colon, and pancreatic cancer.

For the study, Noble and colleagues performed tests on mice and in test tubes with varying doses of the cancer drug. The doses were comparable to those given to cancer patients.

After months of exposure, the drug caused considerable damage to central nervous system cells called oligodendrocytes and the dividing stem cells from which they developed.

The findings suggest that the drug directly targets oligodendrocytes. Oligodendrocytes produce myelin, the fatty substance that helps insulate and protect nerve-conducting fibers. Without adequate myelin, normal nerve signaling is disrupted.

“Our studies demonstrate that systemic treatment with 5-FU is associated with both acute and delayed toxicity reactions, outcomes that are of particular concern because of the use of this agent in the treatment of many cancers,” Noble writes.

The team’s findings parallel observations of earlier studies involving cancer survivors with cognitive difficulties in which brain scans revealed a loss of myelination.

“It is clear that, in some patients, chemotherapy appears to trigger a degenerative condition in the central nervous system,” Noble says in a news release.  “Because these treatments will clearly remain the standard of care for many years to come, it is critical that we understand their precise impact on the central nervous system, and then use this knowledge as the basis for discovering means of preventing such side effects.”